LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



®(pqt..._.„„ ©ojujrajjjt fa.: 

Shelf £ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



MYSTERY 



THE GOLDEN CLOTH 



THE STORY OF THE CHRIST; A BOOK 
OF THE AGES 




JASPER S: HUGHES 




CHICAGO 
WHITE STAR, PUBLISHER 

1895 



-p% 






*s 



COPYRIGHT 

By JASPER S. HUGHES 
1895 



€f)t fLafeesttre $r«s 

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS CO. CHICAGO 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Upon the living-room table in my father's house had lain 
from my earliest recollections an ancient manuscript book, about 
which the most fascinating traditions had gathered. 

It was known as the Golden Cloth, or Cloth of Gold, and 
wrought into its fibers were interpreted certain promises that to 
its possessor some day would come a great reward. 

This cloth was an heirloom to my father, as it had been to his 
father, and so on back from father to son to a period beyond the 
point we were able to trace our family tree. Just why it had been 
so closely preserved and so carefully handed down was never 
rationally accounted for. 

In my father's day it was sometimes referred to as the 
" Rosetta," referring to the famous Rosetta Stone, because it 
resembled it in having the appearance of having be^n written 
upon in three different languages, and also because it implied a 
possibility that the mystery it held should some day be revealed. 
The fabric itself and the characters bore unmistakable marks of 
antiquity and of an oriental origin. It differed from the Rosetta 
Stone in being written upon cloth instead of engraved in stone, 
and the figures, embracing nearly all the great objects in nature, 
were worked in relief upon its face and cunningly made of the 
same threads or strands that composed the fabric itself. It also 
differed from the Rosetta Stone in having its three languages 
braided together or inwoven ingeniously, instead of each having 

3 



4 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

a space of its own. And though the languages seemed to convey 
one and the same message, their mechanical arrangement had 
led into confusion all who had attempted its interpretation. 

This fact was supposed to render it impossible to be under- 
stood. The innumerable efforts of the great and learned who had 
carefully examined true copies of it, had failed, and many con- 
cluded that it was the work of some idle monk or ingenious 
person, without any meaning of importance, and but the carrying 
out of a mere fancy to dispose of idle time by weaving a trackless 
maze which no one might ever unravel, or, if he should, would 
be ill rewarded for so great pains. But all agreed that in view of 
so many failures, it was a great presumption for anyone to attempt 
the secret. There grew around the cloth, therefore, a thick veil of 
superstition for its mysteries, and a reverence for its antiquity, as 
well as for a vague interest felt in the groups of characters them- 
selves, so strangely worked into it and spread all over its surface. 

This strange old book fell to me, and was preserved with the 
same reverence, though not without certain mental questionings, 
as it had been in the hands of my ancestors, through a long line, 
even jealously, though I could not tell a reason why. Being a 
little venturesome, I had once cherished the ambitious design of 
some day finding at least some part of its long-hidden secret, and 
being myself an unordained evangel, I had even ventured a few 
years before to interest my listeners, who had all seen copies of 
the Cloth of Gold. 

I had postponed the undertaking, and might never have 
begun it again, but for the saddest possible calamity that befell 
me. Upon my lovely home, which I held in my heart to be the 
most perfect Eden since that one from which the four rivers went 
out long ago, there fell the shadow of the darkest cloud that ever 
lowered over a spot which perfect love had made happy from our 
bridal day. My dear Emily sank abruptly into the pit of black 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 5 

melancholia from a previous life of continued good health. 
My own bitterness of spirit that resulted, became unbearable and 
incapacitated for the duties of life, I was compelled to seek some- 
thing to divert my thoughts. But my efforts were entirely 
unavailing, and in whatever direction I sought diversion and 
interest or oblivion from my thoughts, it proved of no avail. I 
sought some sea great enough and deep enough to drown my 
all-consuming grief, and after some months it came to me that 
on my table there lay a labyrinth of mystery no man had ever 
threaded and where I might surely lose my thoughts and bury 
my grief. I determined to do so, remembering, however, that it 
was commonly believed that most, or many, at least, had become 
insane in this venturous attempt, and a proverb had often been 
spoken that "he who attempts to find the secret of the Cloth of 
Gold is either insane when he begins it or will be when he ends." 
My distress helped on my usual venturesome disposition and 
urged me to the attempt. 

The Cloth of Gold had always been kept within the lids of 
the old family bible, as in some way akin to it or at least to the 
family record, and never left its place of lying next to the back 
lid, folded to fit. As avast body of tradition had gathered round 
the author of the Cloth of Gold, of little value as affecting either 
the invention or the author of it, I intended that all claims 
for the character of both should rest upon what I might find by 
searching the Cloth itself. Here and there on the Cloth are to 
be found patches of neat and well written sentiments in Greek, 
showing all the marks of care and painstaking possible, and 
bearing marks of literary value, but they are meshed together in 
an order of hieroglyphic misrule to which neither the Rosetta 
Stone nor any other relic of antiquity has yet furnished a 
parallel or the key to unlock. 

The third element of the Cloth is a sort of psalmody of an 



6 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

entirely unearthly and supernal type, as from the spell of some 
enchanted dreamer or transcendental philosopher. One thing of 
most importance to me was that all traditions agreed in saying 
that the author of this antique was an exile, and the Cloth con- 
tains the statement by the author himself that it was while there 
he wrought out the fabric. I said, here is a man who can sym- 
pathize with me. He, too, was heartbroken, in exile, and sep- 
arated from his sweet home, and here he sought and found 
diversion for his mind. 

I will study this fabric. 

Then, too, he was not a modern tobacco fiend and did not 
read the daily papers for his mental diet, nor engage in modern 
politics, and being an exile, presumably for life, I would pledge 
my honor he will be good company and will tell the truth if he 
speaks and that will be luxury enough for me, and so help me I 
will be his companion. If it prove a condescending choice 
I alone hold the secret. 

Near the beginning, at the top of the left hand corner, I find 
worked in plain Greek, these words: 

Maxdpcos 6 avaytvd)(Txiov y xai ol dxouovTSS rbv Xoyov ttjS 7rpo<p7]re{aS f 
xai rijpouvTss rd £v abrrj' yeypap.p.(va 6 yap xatpds iyyus. 

" Happy is he who reads these words of teaching and they 
also who hear and keep the things written herein." 

Well, really, that looks a little like a modern advertising 
scheme, but it is not. There may be nothing in it, but the man 
is honest and this world is not worth a fig to me any more since 
my sweet Emily languishes in the sanitarium and her love turned 
from all* she had ever cherished, and as there is nothing else 
I can do, I will listen to this strange old man as the lover 
listens to the lute. I will take the slightest clue to the secret of 
the soul of him who made this old fabric and wrote into it a 
charm that has carried it through the ages in which all has 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 7 

perished except that which has some sort of merit. Let one 
banished man speak to another across eighteen centuries. Here 
am I, so speak on old exile. I am ready, I will listen. Give me 
one thread of light, or let me touch one string of your harp and 
I will follow it to the end and not let go till I feel your soul 
throbs beat against mine. No one else need know it, but thy 
secret shall be mine. I will follow thee, for I, too, am out of 
fashion with my age as thou with thine, and my Eden is broken 
up and my heart also. I will search for thy blessing as for hid- 
den treasure, for thy far-away exile is not half so distant to me 
as the mercenary, earthly world of nothings and nobodies about 
me. 

But, second thought, now I am presumptuous. Great minds 
have tried to disclose this secret. 

Scholars without number have searched and toiled and failed 
aud despaired and have only written glosses and proposed such 
problems as they knew how to answer, to save their credit with 
the multitude, and have themselves written "Caution" above the 
Golden Cloth; tacit confession of failure. Caution to all not to 
be presumptuous to suppose any mortal mind can ever follow the 
threads inwrought by this old hermit of the Agean. But whose 
business is it if he and I can find company together. What if I 
do have my own mind about this? But I will first have enough 
respect to our great learning to consult its oracles as to the direc- 
tion in which I shall turn my inquiry. This I proceeded to do 
and found that they all agreed that he would indeed be a "blest" 
and happy man who should ever read the secret of the Golden 
Cloth written by the old hermit; but I could not find one of 
them who claimed to enjoy the blessing promised, though all 
gave warning to the curious that suit at this oracle is vain. But 
it was a chilling and labyrinthian road to travel, to follow their 
glossaries, and tired and discouraged I halted to rest. It then 



8 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

came to me that it was thought by many that the fabric in some 
way contained a prophetic construction; a forecast of coming 
times, as the pyramids are said to contain in their construction a 
guide to ancient astronomy. So I fumbled over history a little, 
keeping one eye on the Cloth; but this was spiritless and without 
profit, and I found that I had again wandered away from my old 
friend. It then came to me that I had often said in my "telling- 
talks/' which I call my lectures, that "in all questions of con- 
science the first answer is always the best, while in all questions 
of judgment the last answer is best," and now said my heart 
"you have promised this poor old hermit exile that you believe 
in him and love him more than all the world. Now you and he 
have it out all alone." True, that was my first thought. It was 
best. I will do it. Then I read his words again and this time I 
noticed the text in Greek did not say "happy is he who reads 
these words and then goes to some other man to find out what 
they mean." Ah, yes, I see. If I am to follow you I am not to 
run off after some one else, nor care for their opinions, just we 
two. We are outcasts. Good. If he is an exile from home he 
will speak of that and tell me the grief he bore and how he 
bore it. 

That is my ground of hope. For that secret which he learned 
to bear I search this familiar yet strange old Cloth of Gold all 
alone. 

I will listen to him because he put into his Cloth that which 
kept it from oblivion; that is it, and yet no one can understand 
exactly why? 

That there is some kind of a reason in it is manifest or it 
could not have survived, and this reason, if I can but find it, 
may be the goal, and not a description of hidden treasures or 
gems he may have concealed and here tries to tell of in a last 
will and testament of chattels. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 9 

I indulge the fancy and supposition even when I know from 
long knowledge it does not hint at lost treasure. But what- 
ever it does it beguiles his attention and on that ground 
mine also, and on this the highest ground, my soul now seeks 
to know. 



CHAPTER II. 

What could be of more effect than to find after search that 
the theme of his story was not at all about his own affairs, not a 
dirge over a lost home, nor a pining to return to his country, nor 
anything about it. Nothing in common with what had driven 
my cowardly soul to seek diversion, and now I seemed to intrude 
upon one who had risen vastly superior to myself. 

He was absorbed and in ecstacy over another person whom he 
may have sought under conditions similar to those that led me to 
seek out his company, or for whose sake perchance he suffered 
exile. But neither home, nor friends, nor solitude, had the least 
of his attention, but one who stood to him all and even more 
than Emily had been to me if that could be possible. 

Now I have made a vulgar mistake in supposing this old 
hermit beneath my company. I am to envy him. He is above 
the reach of the care and worry of this world. It may be he has 
wrought the story of his friend into this old cloth, and as I sus- 
pect it I will look for it. 

With this thought I remembered that I knew this was true 
before, and when I said, imagining I was now coming for the 
first time to study the Golden Cloth, I will love this old hermit, 
who has a hero. Here he has wrought his likeness and I will see 
how he understood him. That will show me himself. 

What if his hero should turn out to be the one I loved before 
I loved Emily and to whom I referred when I honestly told her 
at our engagement that she held the highest place in my heart 
any one could hold on earth, emphasizing the last two words 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 1 1 

She understood the emphasis and said nothing, as she always 
held back somewhat, but I nothing. 

And though my first friend was further removed from me 
than the Agean, he was always imaged in my memory sinee my 
baptism in the stream near Clinton Station. What if this Cloth 
of Gold bore some reference to him? Tradition and history have 
said it does, but I have turned away from them and from the 
Commentaries, and must not presume anything nor accept any- 
thing save what I may find here all alone with the Cloth in hand. 
The wonderful pictures of animals, of clouds, rivers, cherubs and 
monsters, etc., here wrought in relief work upon the surface 
seemed at first to prevent my looking deeper into its meshes and 
mechanism. But I will begin at the base. So I began to inspect 
the cloth most leisurely. My earnest careful gaze convinced me 
I had done well in following my heart promptings rather than any 
fine reasoning or learned veneering. In other words, it came to 
me that this work is not a fragment of some other work, not a 
supplement, but that it is a complete and finished fabric, com- 
posed of many parts, but all having reference to a simple and 
therefore a great matter, and in taking the old exile to be sincere, 
I did well to place my confidence in his simple promise that he 
should be a happy man who should read the teachings of the 
Golden Cloth. 

Here I was strengthened in my first impulse and my sympathy 
was increased, and I began to get interested in the thought that 
I should find a place to lose my trouble already in part experi- 
enced, and I will persist and pay no attention to what others say 
or think, and will dismiss my own preconceived and early imbibed 
impressions, and simply follow again and again any clew that 
gives promise of progress. First, then, I will carefully inspect 
the threads or strands that compose the body of cloth. They 
are not so very numerous. Here I take hold of a golden thread, 



12 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

pure unalloyed gold, carefully and regularly twisted and woven 
in here, now rising, then sinking into the fabric and disappear- 
ing, to rise again further on. I will follow it. But though I did 
follow I found that I had lost it a little later and went back and 
began and followed again till I discovered after several trials that 
by some means, I could not understand, I always lost my thread, 
and could not tell how I had lost it. Well, as I have nothing 
else to do, I will find where the trouble lies. Thousands maybe 
have trod this path before me, and I am but repeating their fail- 
ure, and I must give myself a reason why I lost my strand and 
was not able to tell how. That I will fathom. What is it that 
diverts my attention? What is this, this mystic labyrinth whose 
unseen mouth yawns and engulfs me at the threshold? I have 
at least discovered that there is some mystery about my losing 
my attention and letting go my golden strand unconsciously and 
finding myself in a state of absent-mindedness or absorption, 
my strand not yet followed to the end. Well, here is a bewitch- 
ment, and again I tried and failed and so on till I said there is 
no use, if I can not follow one thread through the cloth of gold 
I never can get another step. That is the least thing I can do and 
it must be the first. I found later that it seemed to be the figures 
wrought upon the cloth that diverted my thought and swallowed 
me in dreams and lost me my thread. When the thread passes 
through I turn the cloth, which has a reverse side with figures, 
which bear a kind of correspondence to the right side and seem 
to contain some explanatory suggestion of those, and which con- 
stantly tempts my thoughts away from my golden thread. So I 
sought and later found a sort of familiarity with these figures that 
permitted me at last, after very many trials, to follow to its end 
at the further side of the cloth one of the threads. But what 
have I accomplished? I have simply followed one thread through 
to its end. Well, why could I not do it the first time? What 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 13 

kind of bewitchery caught away my attention? I am curious. 
If my friend, the hermit, is simply some great artist lost in his 
art, he is in his place, and proves himself already a most interest- 
ing person; for no other artist I ever knew could so completely 
cheat me out of my purpose to inspect his work. Well, then, 
maybe he is a master artist, so great and original that he has 
hidden by his art the secret of his Cloth of Gold so that at the 
very door all men are caught away like himself into exile. But, 
now, what about my thread of gold? Well, I take it again and 
follow it to the end, and now I will mark its track so I can 
identify it by these antique figures on the surface, if I should 
chance want it again. Well, there it goes now, and it passes 
right throught the golden girdle of that angelic creature and 
then it passes right through the golden crowns of that circle of 
dignitaries wearing robes, and strange enough it exactly strikes 
the gold crown of a seraph that rides a cloudy chariot and ends 
in the pavement of a city where the streets are laid in gold. Acci- 
dent? Yes, of course, but still interesting. It seems to have 
started from the other end where gold is plentiful enough to 
make paving for the streets. It may be this means something. 
I will keep the facts for the love I have for the sincere old exile. 
I will try another strand. Here is a white one, composed of white 
silk, or linen, and I will follow it. Again I realize the same old 
trouble about holding to my thread, for in turning the cloth I 
lose it and then have to find it in such different surroundings of 
strange figures as makes it nearly impossible to follow it, for on 
the reverse side it always plays a part in forming some object of 
another color. But having succeeded in following it to the end, 
I now try to identify it also by its relations to the figures on the 
fabric, so as to use it easily if I wish it for measurements or for 
data of any kind. Well, my white thread passes through the 
white hair of the first named angelic-looking creature; and, yes, 



H MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

it strikes the white surplice of that company of reposed pilgrims 
at their altar and it passes through a white cloud and ends in a 
white throne at the other end. This may all be accidental, but 
they are parallel strands and coincident also in this feature. Let 
us turn the cloth over and see how these threads are on the 
reverse side. Well, the gold strand strikes no other golden thing, 
but only once an inferior looking metal in a position that forbids 
its being gold and the white linen has no connection with any- 
thing white on the reverse side, but black, or red, or other color. 
A green thread followed out in the same way led to the same 
results. Well, here is an accumulation of suggestive circumstances, 
too great to call mere accident or coincidence. Here is another 
strand, it is red at this end, it passes through a red horse and a 
red dragon, a red beast, a red dress on a tawdry-looking woman, 
and it ends in a red flame at the other end. 

I begin to feel it is a little too familiar to call this man my 
brother. If he can ever forgive me for my first patronizing 
approach and the mean thought that it was a condescension for 
me to leave this world to seek his company when I had nothing 
to leave, all that I loved having been taken from me. If he will 
do this, I will try to forgive the vulgarity of myself so common 
to my countrymen, among whom the worst men and worst 
manners are so often best esteemed, and where they have not the 
consideration to pay an exile's expenses to some distant island. 
Long observation and study has failed to show any connection 
between the strange figures so clearly wrought upon this Golden 
Cloth. Here are two orderly rows of objects and creatures bear- 
ing some phenomenal suggestion. They are written between 
with short Greek texts, and bear some sort of resemblance to the 
objects on the other side of the Cloth. Beyond these toward the 
other end and beyond the middle of the Cloth is another double 
row, or parallel, which seem to hold some relation to each other. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 15 

Each of these four series are seven in number and are divided 
into groups of four and three respectively. Evidences of design 
multiply. Looking at these objects of the Cloth in a general 
way and comparing them, they wear the appearance of having 
once been parts of a mighty temple with menagerie attachments, 
and which had been carried by a cyclone and so strewn over a 
plane as to excite wonder what it might once have been. But 
advances on the embroidered surface is difficult and a return to 
the threads for study showed more promise of a developed plan. 
Some kind of connection is certainly to be found between the 
threads and the objects, which each thread contributes to the 
raised work in figures. But others have remarked appearance of 
design and felt moved with some sub-current of suggestion that 
left an aching wish to see the old exile's secret. 

But here is another order of things: patches of well-written 
Greek in the form of sentiments and descriptions, historic scraps 
and sacred texts and significant dramatic actions. Close observa- 
tion from this suggestion led me to a happy discovery, namely, 
that the three languages which it had braided together instead of 
apportioning each to its own place as remarked about the Rosetta 
-Stone, were only forms of one language. That is, the story of the 
Cloth is written in good plain Greek, and most important of what 
was written was also dramatized, and what was written and dram- 
atized was also chanted by a great chorus. And then it also 
appeared that all these old strange figures were a kind of alpha- 
bets to assist in the solution of the story what it was all about. 

Here then is art, both the artisan who wove the Cloth and the 
artist who formed these various oriental and sacred emblems, in 
relief, and he is musician also, for there are seven chants as well as 
seven seals and seven trumpets and seven bowls, etc., etc. Further 
search made for numbers show that three and four are of frequent 
recurrence and fall into groups of their own, where three seems 



16 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

to identify one class and four another class, and in the series of 
seven, which are five in all, they are always in some way marked 
off into separate groups of three and four. Also twelve and ten 
seem to bear some mystic relation to the story, not at all in sight 
as yet. 

Well, my old friend has gotten me interested, but a thousand 
busy persons before me have with pencil tried to figure out a 
meaning and failed. What of the happiness he promised? That 
none can yet tell; that no one claims to have found as yet. 



CHAPTER III. 

Well, it was a reverie, and I am returned to myself again and 
to the Cloth. I have found a treasure, a balm at least for me; a 
place of exile from a world of his own, where lived a man who 
wrought and wrote and braided, and composed music and drama, 
and forgot his exile and got his mystic Golden Cloth, bound up 
with the sacred writings, as from heaven, but did not get himself 
understood as yet. What charms could so absorb, what fascina- 
tion? He is lost in another, and I will find his hero, too, and find 
the secret he has inwrought into this Cloth of Gold. He is a seer, 
is given visions and words and songs, which he is told to write, 
and he follows and obeys and weaves his Cloth as he is told on 
the pattern seen in the mount of vision; and so weaves the Cloth 
and embroiders it with symbols and writes the drama of it, and 
chants it with harps and viols. 

Well, this is a reverie at any rate, and there are depths beyond 
for me. I have found a home for my thoughts at least, in exile, 
pleasant enough, and here for my companion is a man who found 
occupation for his heart, also, as well as for his mind. I will 
linger here. I will abide with this strange, faithful, long ago 
exile. I feel sure there are other depths to this strange old Cloth. 

Could it be that he, too, like myself, had sought some one else 
who should company his solitude and steal his thoughts from 
sorrow! There he was happy. Now, here is a considerable patch 
of plain Greek, near what may be the beginning of the story, if 
story it be, and translated it reads: "Your brother IcoawrjS in 
affliction partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and 
2 17 



18 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

patience, which are in Jesus, was in the isle called Patmos, for the 
word of His testimony. " A martyr for Him, for Him who was 
martyr for humanity, for all men. Yes, but then my solitude did 
not come that way, still I own to my own heart that I hold it 
against my own time; that, as an evangel, the more honestly I 
have spoken and acted against public corruption for the honor of 
His name, the weaker my support and the more rapid my descent, 
or ascent, into the ranks of the laity where I arrived several years 
ago, and where I took an invoice of my effects and found I had 
saved manhood and conscience and discovered the rest was not 
worth the contention, and for the age to come just as well off, and 
for this world nothing but Emily, and she — well, my consolers 
said, "far better she were dead." 

My exile craved nothing but the solitude of the hermit. 

The world, the same old world that had crucified the Lamb, 
and had banished Him, permits me yet to live in it or to go into 
exile, if I choose, if I will only pay my own way. But no free 
passes to Patmos for me nor any in this age as in that. And now 
we, if He could but tarry till I get there, might have it in solitude 
and together all to ourselves. I do remember that it was in- 
timated he should tarry. To an inquiring follower who, referring 
to the seer, asked the great Hero before He became a martyr: 
"and what shall this man do?" replied: " If I will that he tarry 
till I come, what is that to thee?" This saying went forth among 
his followers that he should not die, and it floated down the 
stream of tradition till near our own day in some countries where 
"prester Yahonnes," as he is called, is fabled in folklore as still 
living, hidden from sight, but whose reappearance is always as 
imminent as his Master's. But Jesus did not say, he shall tarry till 
I come, but "what is it to thee if he, our seer, who calls himself 
our brother, what will ye if he tarry till I come." And here it is 
recorded as true as heaven by this exile: " I was in the spirit on 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 19 

the Lord's day and heard a great voice behind me and turned to 
see, and " he laid His right hand upon me, saying: Fear not, I am 
the First and the Last and the Living One and I was dead 
and am alive forever more and I have the keys of death and 
hadese." How startling and ominous the circumstance; how 
more so the announcement! Do I believe it? In what way and 
how? 

Well, yes, here I am, threading my way into the dear, strange 
old book, and in what a strange manner I have been led into it 
and what new and strange perspectives seem to open to my 
entrance, now that my own exile hath turned me about. What, 
if I should find in this precious old Cloth of God that which is 
stranger than finding the faithful friend of my youth, its hero, a 
condition of things described that would show the difference of 
things in favor of my old friend, the exile, having had his travel- 
ing expenses paid by this old sinful world when it sent Him out, 
and my own times in which I can stay or go as I please, if I will 
only pay my own way. 

Well, of course it is next to impossible I should find matters 
of this character, but I can not help thinking what a strange and 
truly awful thing it would be if this general and manifest change 
should be found to have been woven into our Cloth of Gold, and 
if I can pardon my own venture what, if it should there be found, 
too* that another condition of the world, different from both these, 
should be found described as our imminent future? But all such 
thought must be suppressed, though there is something in this 
mystery that relates and affiliates with my exile and pleases my 
heart. But this I have discovered, that an unaccountable charm 
hangs like a rich oriental drapery all around every approach I 
make to the Cloth, and its secret already is its power, both to 
engage my heart and to divert my mind. When I study the 
details of the mechanism, I am drawn toward what seems to be 



20 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

the larger designs and vice versa; and at every approach from 
whatever direction a peculiar fascination of interest and perturba- 
tion of feeling seize me. I resolve to dismiss my imaginations 
about what might be contained herein of the great movements 
and changes in the world, or the possibility I might find my own 
age, seen from a clearer atmosphere and beyond the reach of its 
taint. Also I will dismiss the doctors of divinity, and in search- 
ing for the supposed treasure of this Golden Cloth, I will follow 
a motto I took from an American journalist when I yet walked 
between the plough handles for my sainted father on the old farm 
near Wilmington. 

" I would not be bound even by the silken cords of gratitude 
to that which would render me indisposed to accept the deeper 
truth that may dawn upon my apprehension to-morrow."* 

These incidents and reflections are as much a part of the 
Golden Cloth to me as though they were woven into its fiber. 
The approaches to it are a part of and inseparable from the Cloth. 
I cannot separate my experience from that first thread of gold, 
nor from the last drama of the work, nor relate it intelligibly by 
any other method. It is with a feeling of regret that these simple 
and altogether truthful statements should wear any appearance of 
the fanciful and novel, for I remember to have read but one 
novel, " Uncle Tom's Cabin," and can neither read nor write in 
such strains from lack of interest. 

But the exile of Patmos, who calls me his brother, is not there 
now, and I am not there, but his work is here, and I am here 
with it, his Golden Cloth. So it is for the surest, and to me the 
strangest thing about it all is that it a woven cloth, and without 
seam, and it is embroidered with cherubim and all the heavenly 
bodies, sun, moon and stars, clouds, rainbows, rivers, seas, islands 
and mountains, abysmal depths of the earth; grass, trees, 

*Horace Greeley. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 21 

temples and cities, are wrought in relief by the very threads that 
constitute its warp and its woof. Its embroidery has all manner 
of precious stones, armies in the saddle, and cities, etc., etc. 

Whoso will, let him follow but keep still and into these 
strangely arranged objects we will go and search as for a hidden 
pearl, the long reputed mystery said to be contained within, and 
on the outside of this world's gift of the Golden Cloth. 



CHAPTER IV. 

There are seven letters written to seven churches located at 
Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, 
and Laidocea, our exile, acting as amanuensis, etc., is told to 
" write.'' Our first pleasure will be to find if there are any strands 
here that lead to further discoveries of the nature of this Cloth. 
We notice that these seven letters are observably uniform in 
structure, and yet in some way also have a wide and pleasing 
variety and presenting the author in the most opulent manner of 
oriental princedom, offering fabulous promises to his followers. 
Seven churches, seven angels, seven spirits, seven stars, raises the 
number seven at once into some mystic prominence, and it is 
further strengthened by the septenary construction of the letters 
themselves, which receive the following natural and simple di- 
visions: 

i. The address. 

2. Signature. 

3. Commendation. 

4. Instruction. 

5. Exhortation. 

6. Warning. 

7. Promising. 

An advance upon the cloth a little way finds the oft recurrence 
of seven, and in every case connected in some way with the 
church. But we meet with strange things, mentioned here as 
though we had met them before — something promised that we 
had never heard of before — "the hidden manna" and the "white 

22 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 23 

gem stone" with "a new name engraved in it, which no one 
knoweth but he that receiveth it," something wrong here in 
regard to natural order. Perhaps we have got the reverse side of 
the cloth or the wrong end of the strand ? This latter proves to 
be the truth. The strand starts at the farther side or end of the 
cloth, where we find a city whose foundations are of gems, most 
precious, and plenty enough to lay into its foundations, and trees 
are growing along the streets that bear twelve manner of fruit 
and yield their fruit every month. Acres of manna, and no 
longer hidden but free to all. So we have learned to be careful 
to find out which end to begin, or that beginning on this side 
and following along the Golden Cloth we shall meet threads 
coming while following those going, and so cross read our story 
into conflict with itself, and by colliding annihilate the sense, and 
so never, nevei find the long sought treasure. 

Well but to be mindful these seven letters were written to 
seven actual churches, though long ago perished, and they are 
threaded into and made a part of all this mysterious Cloth of 
Gold. They are thus seen distinctly as seven churches, but also 
in a larger view they are in one. Yes, stranger than fiction but 
true, and in some strange way they are bound up in the fortunes 
of this story of the Cloth, whatever it be. 

But in these letters also are matters purely local and tem- 
porary by the lapse of time, for we notice some short threads also 
of varying lengths here exposed. 

The tone of these letters show quite a letting down from the 
dashing, splendid and complex orientalism of the cloth further 
ahead, and we can better begin our studies in this lower atmos- 
phere of symbolic altisonance than in the upper register further 
on. Notice then that in addition to the threading of these let- 
ters into the whole fabric by mentioning as belonging to them 
matters found at the further end, that the writer of these letters 



24 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

distributes his princely and priestly signatures across the entire 
seven letters seen at a glance if laid side by side. To one his 
signature is thus, sayeth " he who holds the seven stars in his 
right hand," etc., to the next it is " he that came from the dead," 
etc., and to the next " he that hath the sharp two-edged sword," 
etc., etc. 

The same thing occurs in the enticing and honeyed promises 
that close the letters. They are drawn across and distributed 
among the seven letters near their close. Here the author has 
by a triple cord, or by three strands united these letters to the 
Cloth, and also has knit them close together without in the least 
marring their autonomy. Well, this is more than art, more than 
any art I know, and the Shakespeares may yet look feeble by this 
new art of literature. 

Here is omniscience itself. If the fact of these letters being 
inwrought and woven into the warp of the entire Cloth shows that 
what lies beyond the letters themselves is the history of the ages 
following we have a basis on which to proceed to find it out. 
If there are other elements in these letters that show themselves 
but fragments with missing parts or exposed threads that enter 
into the make up with other parts of it, we have additional evi- 
dence that the glass that was used to view these churches was alti- 
scopic, looking above and beyond them at the same time it was 
looking at them full view. That would be omniscience. We will 
watch for that as a dominating fact as it seems more than a possi- 
bility. It must be noticed that the writer of these letters from 
the island seems in some way commingled in the authorship. 
The author tells the exile to write to the angel of the church at 
Ephesus, but addresses the body of the letter to the church itself, 
not the angel, and after instructing, warning, exhorting it, etc., he 
makes his promises all to individuals and not one to the churches 
as such. The author associates with him in these letters the 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 25 

Holy Spirit, and strangely enough, the Holy Spirit exhorts the 
individual to hear what the spirit sayeth to the churches. The 
two authors of these letters are elsewhere in the Cloth found in 
the same regular relation as author and sanctioner So, not only 
are the elements of these letters to be found throughout the length 
of the Cloth, having their origin at the farther end, and so are 
knit into all its fiber, but the writer and sanctioner, and also God 
who gave the revelation, are woven into it in like manner, and 
are inseparable from all or from any part of it. Here are the 
rudiments of a governing principle to be followed in our pursuit, 
that things which seem to be diverse are here shown to be 
similar or identical in nature, and that things without losing 
their autonomy or selfhood take on also larger parts and are 
made to represent greater power than in themselves possessed. 
Here is a field of transcendence. Here is a power of expression 
unequalled. The types of these real veritable churches are to be 
carried as standard in the mind for measurement of all that may 
profess or seem to be such. 

Now I see the story was woven like cloth so as to preserve its 
perfect unity. I take the suggestion that I shall not attempt 
analysis but synthesis. I will not treat it as a block puzzle to be 
taken to pieces, but what I now suspect to be true, the mightiest 
facts of all time and all things to be put together by deeper re- 
lations. I am to see how they are united and where, and so find 
things closely connected that seemed widely diverse. They are 
to be united in their greater and inner meanings, not in their out- 
ward and changeable. In finding their greater meaning I shall 
find their essential likeness, their elements, their power. The 
old question " why did not the author of the Golden Cloth come 
out plainly enough to be understood," deserves a moment of 
thought. 

The hero of the Golden Cloth once walked on this earth and 



26 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

spoke to the people then living. He had a few close followers 
to whom he confided his meaning and purpose, but to the multi- 
tudes he spoke always in parable and "without a parable spoke 
he not unto them." After a discourse of this kind, while stand- 
ing in a ship and addressing vast multitudes of people, his fol- 
lowers came to him and, as if to chide him, said: " Master, why 
do you speak to them in parables,'' and his reply was: "that 
seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear." Even 
when a ruler came to him inquiring, he replied in language so 
mysterious that he probably understood not any part of it. Why 
he chose this course is not on our track to further answer now. 
There are no parables in the Cloth of Gold, but we may find — 
can we venture to think of it — thoughts so great as could not be 
contained in any known language. Dare we hope it that the 
author is too princely to appear in any language worn into 
unclearness by this sinning world? Does the Cloth of Gold really 
contain a language nowhere else to be found on earth; a language 
native to higher and greater thoughts than man's sphere? We 
will see. But one thing we are sure of: the language of the Cloth 
will be the author's own and will be new and on a scale commen- 
surate with the theme. It required a new grave for his dead 
body to lay in three days, and he will not likely walk down these 
ages in garments that will tarnish and accumulate its earthly 
dusts. 

But why do you not call it the " Revelation of Jesus Christ?" 
Because it is not, and all persons agree it is not revealed, and 
even declare it can not be, and so place a prohibitory caution upon 
the attempt. The word revelation has become a kind of world- 
word, which has suffered from the world's tarnish. I did not 
come to its study from that point. The moment I look at it as a 
theologian, I can not see it nor understand, for a veil is on my 
face, like that which Moses wore, and in figure was attributed 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 27 

as the blindness of Israel, so they could not see to the end of the 
law. When I view this from the lower view my troubles gradually 
leave me. If I attempt analysis, or what passes for it, I am at 
once lost. But when I attempt the synthetic or unifying method, 
which I do in the face of the greatest throng of heterogeneous 
things, the way opens to me, and all becomes strong, consistent, 
unific. And the number of elements continue to be reduced till 
all becomes a very simple and consistent story, considered as 
such, and entirely free from all fugitive or vagrant parts, the whole 
being reposed within a few elementary principles. 

By so avoiding outward and seeming resemblances and adopt- 
ing those that are essential, we have a many times multiplied 
power of expression. And this expression is free from the lim- 
its and imperfections of ordinary language. His earthly ministry 
was conducted in parables, or dark sayings, but his ministry 
through the ages succeeding his ascension is conducted in a 
threefold language, producing the most remarkable speech ever 
heard by man. And not only is the character of this Cloth of 
Gold a climax, as regards the preceding divine writings, but is 
itself a climax in every respect to the close. Of the dominant 
language here used, the symbolic occupies the same relation as 
parable did in his earthly teaching. 

Parable is an easy form for teaching elementary principles 
and served the purpose then present, but for a world-wide and 
age-long form of teaching the symbolic was adopted for the Cloth 
of Gold. The symbol does not compare one thing to another. 
That is similitude, not symbol. To illustrate the things above by 
what is passing on earth, is parable, and to illustrate by possible 
or imaginary events of life, the way in which eternal issues are 
produced is allegory. But the symbol, unlike these, brings the 
deeper meaning at once to view, stripped of that which is acci- 
dental, leaving its essence alone upon the mind. Its power is in 



28 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

its being able to flash pure thought directly into the mind, or in 
flashing it from two or three polished points till its refractions 
have purified, enlarged and intensified it into untold power of 
expression. This occurs several times upon the Cloth of Gold, 
and when the veil is removed from the heart will be felt as the 
real, true and mighty power of him who " spake as never man 
spake." In leaving the seven letters, we must bear our threads 
in our hands. Here we learned: the element of anticipation is a 
part of the structure of the book, many things being found here 
that belong to the further side of the Cloth. Also the element of 
climax, which enlarges every current of thought till it swells into 
the highest power at the further end, and the element of omni- 
science, which sees them all at one view and connects them by 
their essential nature, etc. 

THE GREAT FOREVIEW. 

The opening vision begins, "T saw a door opened in heaven." 
Heaven does not mean the abode of God as used in this Cloth. 
It must be taken in the Cloth's own use of it. The voice of a 
trumpet sounds but connects no personality with what is about to 
be shown. " Come up hither," does not mean to leave the earth 
nor even his prostrate position ; does not mean to rise up in 
mind as from the earth, but to come forward that " I may show 
you things which must come to pass hereafter." It is a look into 
the future. The " things hereafter means the end of the world, 
considered as a world in opposition to God." 

The scene that follows represents the hero as victorious. It 
is the millennium scene, the fruition, the victory of our prince, and 
describes and illustrates the condition of the world when brought 
under his rule. The last thing to be in fact is the first to be 
presented. 

The exile is acting the part of a good angel in writing what 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 29 

he is told, what he sees and what he hears, and leaves us to guess 
what he thinks. Straightway he was in the spirit. First, notice 
the number i( -four" we suspect a hidden meaning in it. We 
have "four " general objects of interest about a great throne, and 
we have four living seraphim, or creatures, and twenty-four sen- 
ators and seven lamps of fire and a glassy or white sea. 

The vision is one but is in "four" parts. The twenty-four 
senatorial judges represent the world under the dominion of 
Christ, considered as Jews and gentiles, or the old dispensation 
and the new. The four great creatures represent the world 
powers, considered as governments now doing his will in the 
millennium. The seven lamps of fire represent the churches con- 
sidered as bodies culled out from the world, already recognized 
in the seven letters. The glassy sea represents all the people 
dressed in white linen ; the people, considered as such apart 
from their other distinctions. We will ask the spirit of Joseph 
and of Daniel to go with us to interpret this vision. When 
Joseph dreamed that eleven sheaves had bowed down to his sheaf 
in the harvest, he told it to his brethren, but when he dreamed 
that eleven heavenly bodies had bowed to him, he told his father 
also and was rebuked for presumption. But his dream was kept. 
When sold into Egypt and thrown into prison he interpreted 
dreams for his fellow prisoners, and was by the circumstances of 
their fulfillment, called into court to interpret a dream of the 
king. The king dreamed he saw seven lean beasts devour seven 
fat ones, etc., and then he dreamed that seven lean ears of corn 
devoured seven fat ones and remained lean as before, etc. 

Joseph said to the king: "The vision is one, but God hath 
doubled it unto thee that thou might know it was from God." 
His own double dream was afterward fulfilled through his inter- 
pretation of the king's dream. 

The king of ancient Babylon had a dream which went from 



30 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

him with the going of the night, and he sent for Daniel to whom 
the dream was repeated, and he gave the meaning of it, so it, 
also, was doubled. This dream of the fourth chapter, now before 
us, is doubled. It is the true picture of the end of his contest 
with the world powers, his work and mission among men, the 
time of happy fruition and reward of his righteousness. Its 
being doubled is the assurance it is from God, founded in the 
facts just stated. A throne is set in heaven and one sitting upon 
it who to look upon was like a jasper stone and a sardius. The 
sardius is the first gem and the jasper is the last in the breast- 
plate of the high priest, which he wore in performing his office. 
They thus represent the breastplate, and the breastplate stands 
for the priesthood and its offices of offering blood, etc. This 
means that it is a priestly occupant now on the throne, and 
not a legal like that of Solomon, but a priestly and merciful 
throne. There was a rainbow about the throne " like an emerald 
to look upon," that shows the throne has fulfilled or is here ful- 
filling its promises to bring the world under heavenly rule. It is 
" like an emerald," that is, green in color, and green means 
living as opposed to dead; a living throne, not something past 
and dead. 

The senators sat upon " twenty-four thrones round about the 
throne." The world, as religiously divided by Jew and Gentile; 
twelve judge the Jews and twelve judge the Gentiles. 

This is an old distinction and holds recognition here.. 

They are in white robes, and the white thread runs through 
all their robes, and they wear crowns of gold, and the Cloth 
shows the gold thread we first followed passes through all the 
crowns; and out of the throne proceeded "thunderings," that is, 
God's word, and "voices" of men who spoke it, and "lightnings," 
the effects upon the minds of those who heard it. The seven 
lamps of fire burning before the throne are " the seven spirits of 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 3 T 

God." They are also the seven spirits of the Lamb. These 
spirits are also called " seven eyes and seven horns" of the 
Lamb. Seen from the earth view they are candlesticks, and candle- 
sticks are explained to mean churches. Seven is never used in 
the book for a bad purpose, except in the great parody field yet 
to be known. In the midst of the throne and round about the 
throne were the four living creatures composed entirely of eyes. 
They represent the world under the configuration of animals, 
and the animals represent governments and are placed as 
emblems on their national flags. "The first one was like a lion, 
the second one like a calf, the third one had a face like a man 
and the fourth one was like a flying eagle." That means that at 
the time of the fruition, when the priestly conqueror sits on his 
throne and all the world acknowledges his supremacy, then the 
world shall be strong as a lion, obedient as the ox in yoke, 
intelligent as man and swift as the eagle to do his will. And 
as the four creatures each have six wings (composed of eyes, 
also) they represent their method of elevating themselves, that 
is, by the truth of God, which alone can raise a person or a 
nation. Two of these wings, as seen in a similar or parallel 
vision by an old prophet, covered the feet, that is, scripture 
fulfilled and past, and two covered the face, that is, predictions 
of the future, and two they used to fly upon, obedience to 
present duty. These creatures have no rest day or night, because 
no day or night on the earth could ever reach them all at 
one time, spread as they are around the whole earth's surface, all 
kindreds, tribes, ex. 

It is said these creatures sat " in the midst of the throne and 
round about the throne," a mechanical impossibility. But that 
is the way he tells us that while they were in power, reigning 
with the throne, they were also about it, or under its sway; 
that is they were both ruling and serving at the same time. 



32 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

These world powers in such positions would of itself show the 
fruition state, worshipping God and being joined in his rule. 
The elders also represent all time and all people, and this is 
doubling the vision. The lamps are the churches and they also 
are in the fruition, and the sea of glass also represents the saved. 
So we have the elders and creatures and the churches and the 
saved people, a double vision of the millennium, the thousand 
years of his reign. The four creatures say "holy art thou," etc., 
three times and the senators join, and they fall down and worship 
and cast their crowns at his feet. 

We are holding strictly on to our strands. This one starts in 
from the further end of the Cloth and when we reach there it 
will have a swollen appearance. 

If we follow these twenty-four elders we find it runs right 
through them seven times in seven different places before we 
reach the end of the Golden Cloth and coming out at the other 
side, they have harps and other instruments besides their crowns 
and robes. Or take the four creatures thread and seven times it 
passes through their figures on the Cloth. 

It is the fruition; the victory of the conquering hero over the 
world. It is presented first. It is the mark toward which the 
acts that follow all tend. It lays the field of conflict clearly in 
this world. The incongruity of four great creatures like a lion, 
a calf, an eagle, etc., before the throne in company with the 
elders, etc., is prophetic. There was nothing like it ever occurred 
as yet in this world. It is a scene representing a condition on 
earth yet future. The first promise of the Bible will be the last 
to be fulfilled: "The woman's seed shall bruise the serpent's 
head." It is pictured here at the further end of the Cloth of 
Gold, a lake of fire and Satan going headlong into it. 

The order is the same here. The last condition comes first in 
place. The inconsistency of world creatures mingling with the 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 33 

heavenly, shocks our feeling, used to a very different association 
of facts of our own experience. But toward a different state of 
the world, we start on the campaign of centuries. We shall hold 
on to our threads. 

We will look at the element of climax. Take for instance the 
warnings to the churches. He warns the first to repent or he will 
come and remove the candlestick, but to the last one he is now 
upon them, at their very door. "Behold, I stand at the door 
and knock." There is the same increased or climactic order in his 
promises. They rise higher as they proceed onward through the 
seven letters. Now we have found that the threads of our Cloth 
run both ways, so we have the anticlimax threads also, and 
what if we should find broken threads? It must not be forgot- 
ten, for the Cloth is so woven, that anticipation and retrospec- 
tion must be continuous, and so the interpretation of the first 
dream must wait a little for further confirmation of its truth. 
The running in both directions as if by continuous threads sug- 
gests the Aramean method of writing forward and back adopted by 
the Hebrews and here expressed by the woven appearance of the 
composition. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FIRST GREAT DRAMA. 

Here is another area of the Cloth joined to and connected as 
by a neck to the fourth chapter. 

The same throne remains in the scene and the same en- 
throned one has now in his right hand a book written within and 
on the back side sealed with the seven seals. 

The number being seven suggests some word for the seven 
churches, and this word is from the throne, but it is sealed and 
cannot be read except what is written on the back, and is held in 
the hand of the throne. 

Such a message from such a source excited a great interest, 
and a strong angel with a great voice asks: " Who is worthy to 
open the book and to loose the seals thereof." 

The voice was so loud it was heard in heaven and on earth 
and by those under the earth, but no answer came back. 

In neither of these three places could any one be found able 
to open the book or to look thereon. 

This was too much for the old exile. 

He heard the call and saw all anxious faces turned that way 
and none more anxious than he to know what it contained. 

He was overcome, so he says: "I wept much because no one 
was found worthy to open the book, or to look thereon." Here, 
now, I see my thought was well taken that the secrets of a great 
prince are not to be " pearls cast before swine." Not to be 
trusted to every sort of fellow. Even my honest old hermit 
prince stood back; felt himself humbled in the strange company 

34 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 35 

of such majesty and his heart sank down and he wept much for 
one able to take the book and loose its seals. 

One of the elders said to him: "Weep not, for behold the 
lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed," 
or has overcome, to open the book and the seals thereof. 

He looked and beheld his adored hero impersonated in a slain 
lamb "standing." Here is ecstacy enough. Our old hermit is happy 
now in his chief among the ten thousand, standing alone before 
the wondrous throne of jasper and rainbow, in reply to the call 
for the most able person in heaven or earth. If it were nothing 
but a day dream his heart would quicken with joy at the thought 
of such an emergency being promptly supplied by his slain, but 
risen and living prince, now the center of attraction for all eyes, 
and in the character of a victim of this world's wrath made victor 
in that better world's love. 

No exile is a trifler; it is near impossible this one could be, 
but I only say, looking at him apart from any other consideration 
as of visions, etc., he is deeply interested, and we cannot help 
entering into it with him. 

He is pacified with the promise that his Master-Prince can 
perform the task, and that this is he, and that the exile himself 
will hear the glorious news when the seals are broken. Of course 
I knew all these things by some sort of sense that does not now 
belong to me in thinking on it, and which I shun to recall again, 
for that, too, is a fabric much worn, because much handled and as 
a song too often sung and weary to me, and connects with things 
non-elastic and ill-timed; and may be, if I venture the hope, this 
Cloth of Gold may yet discover to us that this apathetic age is a 
part of a system of things which always belong to the going-out 
of one epoch and the coming in of another; or rather that with- 
out losing anything of what we have just learned the better to 
value the next lower. 



36 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

But where is our exile as to this vision? What does it 
mean? We have given no attention to the first chapter, except 
to notice the text in Greek, in which the promise is made that 
he shall be a happy man who reads the sayings of the Cloth. 
There may be found plainly written these words: The revelation 
of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants 
and he sent and signified it, etc." The words "revelation" and 
"show" and "signify" all occur in that first sentence and suggest 
this book he has taken to open may have some connection with 
that. Yes, we remember that we said, a strange discovery we had 
made in the Golden Cloth was that it speaks the story of its hero 
in three ways: by plain speech and by dramatization and by 
chanting. Well, this is the first item in the first line of the Cloth 
dramatized, and here, in the figure of a Lamb, the giving of the 
revelation is shown. A little further ahead on the Cloth is the 
chanting of a new song, one line of which is "Worthy art thou to 
take the book and to open the seals thereof." That connects the 
Lamb with the revelation. As the Cloth shows no other instance 
of a Lamb being slain, we conclude this to be our exile's hero. 
He says: I am he that was dead, and behold I am alive forever 
more. " He laid his hand upon me and said: I am he that was 
dead and behold I am alive forever more. " The Lamb, looking as 
though it had been slain, is the dramatic expression of this twice 
announced truth. He is also now called the lion of the tribe of 
Judah and the "root of David." 

Judah's distinction came from his powers and courage in vin- 
dicating the honor of his family and his aged father, dying and 
leaning upon his staff, left as his last words this encomium as a 
legacy to him, "Judah is a lion's whelp," etc. And this was a national 
watch-word in Israel for bravery. David, pure and simple, from 
following the sheepfold, with the cunning use of his sling, felled 
the swaggering giant that held Israel's army in fear. Now, we 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 37 

begin to see another secret of the exile's method of teaching. 
The leading and characteristic thing in the lives of these two men 
are run together into one current of light, and are flashed into 
the mind by one fragment of a sentence to describe the quality 
of the person who is about to take the book from the hand of 
Him that sat upon the throne. Judah for lion-like strength and 
David for skill, etc. But lest some one may suppose this means 
lion or brute force; the great oratorio or chant that follows this 
act describes this mighty power as worthiness, and this worthiness 
was in his having been slain, and " did purchase us to God by 
thy blood. " His humble service was his mighty power. Not 
only power, but the refinement forbids any thought below the 
highest. 

The smallness of David's stature compared with Goliath, who 
relied upon mere brute force, adds symbolic beauty and delicacy 
to the thought. The literal and proper translation adds still 
more to the power of the expression, which is the "Little Lamb," 
diminutive and endearing. It occurs twenty-eight times, four 
times seven, and in every case he is the "Little Lamb." 

The exile sees and hears all this of his hero and tells it. Ori- 
ental magnificence, entering with the most delicate conceptions of 
purity, as power, love as power, weakness as power. What a real 
prince of the house of God is his hero, and, if his hero was an in- 
vention, then what a royal prince of the house of God was the 
artist to conceive of a character wearing the most pleasing and 
bewitching attributes ever conceived of by mortal mind! There 
can be no solitude where such a man is. His genius would fill 
the place of his own hero, if he had not a real one. 

I see myself in a palace of splendor, whose massive towering 
columns stand deepening into interminable perspective and hung 
with the most gorgeous draperies in whatever direction I look. 
There is a warning to the vulgar, not to enter here. The great 



38 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

secret hidden from the foundation of the world, which eye had not 
seen nor ear heard, and which had not entered into the heart of 
man, this or that part of it which belongs to and concerns the 
Little Lamb, is conveyed to him from the Father as a book written 
inside and out. As Moses stood far down in the line of the march 
of the race and, in vision, gave account of creation's dawn, so the 
Little Lamb stands apace to give the world the secret of its 
glorious end. Here, on the Cloth of Gold, it shows him receiving 
it at the hand of the throne, contained within seven seals and by 
him to be "revealed, to be shown and to be signified." Three 
times said. 

There can be traced from the earliest writings of earth a secret, 
a mystery, as to the outcome of our race. The hero of our exile 
often referred to it and couched his meaning in parables and hid 
it from them for the time present. But here, with a witnessing 
world above and on earth and below, is performed the giving of 
a sealed message which this Cloth shows to be united with threads 
that run from those actual churches at Ephesus, Smyrna and 
others along lines that must refer to the future, and so unite all 
events in one. The great oratorio that follows this dramatized 
giving of the book, and here called a "new song," takes on great 
expression. The "Little Lamb" is their praise as having re- 
deemed us and made us a kingdom of priests. Ten thousand 
times ten thousand and thousands of thousands join the glad 
acclamation, and the four creatures and twenty-four senators again, 
and all inanimate creatures are given voices, and in a rising united 
and universal crash of harps and voices they sing and pour out 
incense in a seven fold ascription of glory to God and the Lamb. 

We have begun to get a footing for finding the secrets that 
underlie the construction of this mysterious Cloth of Gold. 
Then its riches must follow. Our exiled prince's hero is pre- 
sented under a great many phases. The names given him are 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 39 

full of character packed into them from the brilliant points of 
earth's greatest heroes and instead of likening him to any one of 
them by certain resemblances, he gathers out of them the essence 
of true excellence and twists them together and flashlights them 
into the soul and sends that light up to our hero's .character. 
This is suggestion that every great and sacred object may be sub- 
ordinated here to add expression to the glory of this prince of 
heaven. Now carefully and thoughtfully looked at, the first 
chapter is seen to be a title page with the portrait of the hero, 
fully invested with his titles, personal and official, as he is about 
to begin his course. The exile sees him clothed in white linen, 
girded with a golden girdle, his head and hair white as snow, his 
eyes like fire, his feet as burnished brass, his voice as the voice of 
many waters, holding in his right hand seven stars and walking 
amid the lights of seven golden candlesticks, a two-edged sword 
coming out of his mouth, and his face shining with the full 
glory of the sun. Following this introduction are the seven letters, 
among which he distributes his titles and honors as symbols of 
himself and of his functions, and then comes the vision of the 
fruition and then he takes the book to break the seals and to 
show what is to transpire in the long intervening space. But the 
manner in which the exposure is wrought into the fabric is that 
mysterious mirage that swallows up every one's attention who 
tries to follow the threads to enter its storehouse. 

SEALS AND TRUMPETS. 

The story that is woven within the Golden Cloth is contained 
in seven seals and seven trumpets. It came from him who sat upon 
the throne, who held it in his right hand, and it was sealed close 
with seven seals and thus given into the hand of the Little Lamb, 
who opened them, and from them the seer tells us what he saw 
and heard from them when opened. 



40 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

These two series the seals and the trumpets bear a comple- 
mentary reference and dependence upon each other. 

The trumpets are a kind of supplement and companion piece. 
The seals, as seen on the book, contain all the matter of the 
book. The trumpets are explanatory and all that follows after 
them are in turn explanatory of the trumpets as the trumpets are 
explanations of the seals. 

We are confused at the first with the dim outcropping of 
characters which seem to lie under those on the face. There is 
an inner feeling that the Cloth had been written on before with 
other designs, and these are super-imposed or embroidered over 
them, bringing a confusion, like our first attempts, at following 
the golden thread. This subconsciousness is right, so our eyes 
which see clearly only what lies upon the upper surface, but 
went not below, failed to see the bearings of this distinct dualism, 
which is found to pervade the Cloth of Gold in all ways and 
places, showing that the vision of the seer is given on the exact 
pattern of those given to Joseph and to Daniel, and which the 
former explained as God's way of assuring the king, that what 
might otherwise be taken for a mere dream was thus assured to 
be given of God for a great purpose. 

But why use the two series of seals and trumpets for convey- 
ing it? How do seals and trumpets find any connection with 
the matter contained either logically, chronologically, or other- 
wise? The relation of the seals to the trumpets is the relation of 
the Little Lamb to his apostles. The seals are the Christ, the 
Lamb and the trumpets are his apostles. The Lamb is represented 
as seals because his ministry on earth was sealed. The apostles 
are trumpets because he made known to them the secret of the 
Father and told them to preach it abroad to the ends of the 
world. 

While he was here in the world the Little Lamb spoke to the 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 4 1 

multitudes in parables. His disciples came to him after he had 
seemed to throw away the opportunity of a lifetime by address- 
ing the great multitudes in parables. They asked him why he 
had spoken to them in parables, and he told them it was in order 
that " seeing they might not see and hearing they might not 
understand." He explained his parables to his disciples in 
private and said: " There is nothing covered that shall not be 
revealed, neither hid that shall not be made known." " What I 
tell you in darkness that speak ye in light and what ye hear in 
the ear that preach ye upon the housetops." He told his disciples 
they were his friends, and, therefore, he had made all things 
known to them which he had received of his Father, and he 
would no longer call them servants. Our exile himself had laid 
his head next to the breast of the Little Lamb at supper. His 
ministry was sealed, the apostles ministry was trumpeted and 
hence the great revelation is contained in seals and trumpets 
lying side by side. He told his apostles they should tarry and 
not proclaim till he had endued them with power from on high. 
Seals and trumpets therefore symbolize the gospels and the 
preaching of the apostles. He promised them, saying, " Lo I 
am with you always to the end of the world," and truly here they 
are joined in one ministry. Woven into this rare, this precious 
old Cloth of Gold; then we may seek the Little Lamb and his 
apostles companying together down the ages, if we find such out- 
come to the story. More than thirty years after the last letter 
written by Paul we have wrought in silk and gold the symbolic 
expression that the Lamb in symbol of seals that represent his 
world ministry, and the apostles in symbol of trumpets that 
sounded out its meaning, and they are to speak again this their 
last word. The seals will speak first and the trumpets will follow. 
But they cover the same field and do not join one to the other in 
chronological order. There will be no change of administration, 



42 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

nor succession if these continue to speak to each passing age. 
Can it be possible? Do these seals and trumpets speak of the 
passing centuries? Is he here, and are his apostles with him, 
wrought wondrously into this Cloth of Gold never read till now? 
What may these threads contain? But as there are twelve apostles 
and twelve is a symbolic number, how can they be expressed in 
the number seven — seven trumpets? The form of expression 
contained in the Cloth is found in groups, and to each group is a 
dominant. For want of observing these groups of symbolic 
expression long study was lost. But the dominant once found 
all other incongruities disappear and every word becomes a sword 
of truth from his mouth and not longer a dark saying. In the 
present group we have the number seven dominating, so that the 
Little Lamb is in " seven eyes and seven horns." He has seven 
stars and walks amid seven candlesticks, even the spirit is in seven 
and the Father himself is in seven. Seven spirits, seven lamps, 
seven churches, and seven trumpets which are the apostles and 
follow the seals and expound to us what the seals vaguely hint. 
We shall yet find the apostles in their own number twelve. But 
how strange, how mystic the appearance of this well wrought 
Cloth of Gold. It is embroidered on both sides. 

There are two sides as if the book when its seals were broken 
were unrolled as a scroll. There is a right and a wrong side to 
the Cloth of Gold, that is an upper and lower side. It is a pat- 
tern given to the seer to follow as God gave to Moses a pattern 
and said, " See thou make all things according to the pattern 
shown thee in the Mount." 

The first group of four of the seals are on the under or wrong 
side of the Cloth and the later group of three are upon the upper 
side. The trumpets likewise. What does this interruption in 
the series say to us? What is signified therein? 

One of the groups gives the world view, or world side and 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 43 

the other gives the heavenly. In this respect the five groups of 
seven are alike except the evangels to. be noticed in place. 

In each of these series of sevens we have the world view in 
the group of four and the heavenly in the group of three. The 
contest is between the heavenly powers and the world powers, the 
battlefield has been shown to be this world and the contestants 
will be noticed later. 

We are now again full in the face of the dual method, the 
dream law, that pervades the Cloth. We see its first striking 
manifestations in the letters with two authors, etc. Then we fol- 
lowed it to the fruition scene where we found the double dream 
and key to unlock the meaning of it. We saw again that the 
twelve apostles who are to judge the twelve tribes of Israel were 
doubled, so as to recognize the gentiles and so gave us twenty- 
four elders to represent Jews and Gentiles in the great fruition. 
We also noticed that the book in the hand of him that sat upon 
the throne was written both within and on the back side or out- 
side, so now the Cloth of Gold itself has an upper and lower side 
and is written and figured on both sides. These dualities all 
follow the two tables of stone on which God wrote the law 
given to Moses. That is the basis and ground of the pervading 
duality of this vision. 

The two tables are themselves symbolic and represent the 
truth that God's covenant is two-sided. God proposes and man 
accepts his covenant. The first four seals are to the world and 
against the Lamb. Not finally but from the world view or from 
the militant standpoint. For this reason we find them in a sepa- 
rate group and they are under, beneath and not above; not on 
the right or upper side of the Cloth. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The first group of four seals are against the seer and the Lit- 
tle Lamb, but the group of three that follow are on their side, the 
right side. The letters, the seals, the trumpets, the evangels and 
the bowls series are all divided into conflicting groups of three and 
four each. The nature of the change that divides them is full of 
suggestion. A part of each series being thus upon one side and 
a part on the other, is what first gave the work the appearance of 
being woven as cloth, as seen in the threads. 

There is a passing through, not only of the threads but of 
these series also, the seals and trumpets, etc., and these subjects 
never lose their place or get mixed together. The gold thread does 
not stray over to the other side, nor does the white or black 
or green thread ever lose its office or place. The series observe 
the rule, only they divide and pass through and so have lost 
themselves to the expositors and interpreters who have sought to 
connect them on one plane. Take the letters for illustration and 
there we find both the method and a suggestion of what it means. 
The letters each contain a promise from the Little Lamb "to him 
that overcometh, etc." And the Spirit warns each one saying, 
" Let him that hath an ear, hear what the spirit sayeth to the 
churches." The transposition from their respective places in the 
letters of these two items contains the suggestion that led to the 
discovery of the passing through of the series from one side to 
the other. 

That is, the promise of the Little Lamb which comes next to 
last item in the matter of the letters, changes places with the fourth 

44 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 45 

letter and comes last, whereas the Spirit's warning, which came 
before it now takes its place. 

These letters lying side by side present the crossing of the 
two items. The promise goes up and the Spirit's warning comes 
down. It signifies the ascension of the Little Lamb and descent 
of the Holy Spirit to enable the apostles to proclaim. It will 
repeat itself in the seals, trumpets and bowls, by marking the 
worldly from the heavenly side. This movement or transposi- 
tion exceeds all literary contrivances. The Little Lamb is in his 
promises and after the third letter and beginning with the fourth 
the promise ascends and the Spirit descends and remains so to the 
close. The subjoined skeleton diagram of the letters will illus- 
trate it. 

If so trifling circumstances can picture to the mind so impor- 
tant lesson of events passed/ what may their use not signify of 
events to follow? This was a venturesome thought, about this 
book. What if it should prove to be veritable, a correct foreview 
of the mighty contests of the succeeding ages, the Little Lamb 
in controversy with the world powers. These groups of three 
and four into which the series of seven are divided are joined one 
to another. The group of three are heavenly, the group of four 
worldly. They are on different sides, joined and opposed. Will 
not the three conquer the four and result in a sacred seven? We 
have the suggestion of contest also in the fact of currents run- 
ning in opposite directions. Both the threads identified by colors 
and in serials, run in opposite directions and show conflicting 
attitudes by passing from above to below and from below to 
above. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The first group of seals are opened and we have an equestrian 
display. Four horses are brought out. Horses are world crea- 
tures and their number being four they are also in the world sign. 
They represent the four spirits or minds which strive in the 
earth. They are dim and mystic. They are only a chalk outline 
and wait the complement of the trumpets to give their full 
meaning, as Christ's ministry waited for the apostles to explain 
his mission in the natural world. The lessons are not contained 
in the different qualities of animal dispositions as we had in the 
four creatures about the throne, but this is a lesson in colors. 
The first is a white horse and he belongs to the white throne at 
the other end of the Cloth, and he is related to the white stone, 
the white cloud and the white army, and that great white 
area at the further end of the Cloth. The number four con- 
nects these horses with the four great creatures, all com- 
posed of eyes and represent the same general fact but under 
changed aspects. So the four winds, the four angels, the four 
corners of the earth, etc., are but changed aspects representing 
changed conditions of one and the same general fact. So of 
all the multiples of four. 

They belong to this class and are all related by being on the 
same side and are contained in Satan, who wears four appropri- 
ated names at the other end of the Cloth. These four horses 
being brought out and shown by the four creatures, further illus- 
trates the world view. They also show that the field of contest is 
this world. The colors and accoutrements of these horses bespeak 

46 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 47 

their mission. The first is white, and his rider is an archer and 
wears a crown, and carries a bow. It is the Little Lamb, as the 
world sees him, a power among powers, a horse only, and white, 
and expresses the power that the Lamb exerts in the world, 
through his own word and people. 

The second one is a red horse, and his color relates him 
to the red dragon, the red dressed woman over there, and to 
the red flame that burns at the other end of the Cloth. His rider 
suits the color of the horse, holding a great sword and proclaims 
his mission is to take peace from the earth. 

This is the war spirit of the world. It follows after the white 
horse and its mission is blood, and it lives by blood. 

The third is a black horse. 

It is connected with the night, and its thread can be traced to 
fallen and extinguished stars lying on the earth and to the black 
sun and smoky moon, and it has a great black spot in the middle 
of the Cloth, from which it gradually changes color till it becomes 
white at the farther end. 

The third horse bears a rider who holds balances or scales in 
his hand, and when he appears a voice is heard explaining his 
purpose. That voice comes not from heaven but from earth. It 
comes from among the four creatures and it is the voice of the 
merchant, " a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures 
of barley for a penny." Wheat is the symbol for God's word and 
the barley for man's poor explanation of it, or comments, etc. 
Three measures signify it is something good, or at least is sold 
for that. "And the oil and the wine see thou hurt not." Oil 
and wine stand for merchandise. 

This merchant is in the dark thread. He is trading and bar- 
tering heavenly things for the earthly, making merchandise of the 
word of God. This business suits the color of the horse. A 
famine price being put upon the wheat and barley shows a mon- 



4 8 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

opoly has been secured, and the blackness hints that darkness has 
resulted from holding a trust on sunlight. We shall see it again. 
The fourth is a pale horse, mixed in color ; and the rider 
wears his name attached to him, which is " death," and there 
follows " hades," or the unseen. He is a mixture of the white 
and the black. The first and second horses are positive, the third 
and fourth resultant and negative. 

The white horse is the only one that seems to survive, for 
though he disappears now he is seen again with one hundred and 
forty-four thousand following him, near the extreme end of the 
Cloth. 

The black horse leaves the field near the middle of the 
Cloth. 

The red horse continues longer, and the pale horse continues 
still further till the white area effaces all traces except the white 
horse, which seems to claim the whole white field to himself. 
Persecution follows truth and darkness follows persecution, and 
the grey light of dawn precedes the white day. The pale horse 
has a field of his own joining this side the field of white. 

The three remaining seals to be broken are of a different 
character. They constitute the heavenly side of the subject, and 
they come second place, because the world dominates in the seals 
view. It killed the Little Lamb. 

The fifth seal must have had a strange effect upon the exile, 
for he was very susceptible to emotion, as three times illustrated 
in the Cloth. He is seen falling in the presence of his hero, 
and later at the feet of his guide, etc. To see under the altar the 
souls of them that had been beheaded instead of exiled was a 
sight whose effect he did not explain. The world has triumphed 
over them. At the altar, or under the altar, tells the story of 
their faith, their love, their martyrdom. Therefrom they cry and 
call for vindication of their righteousness, and there too they hear 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 49 

it said unto them that in a "a little time their request shall be 
heard. And white robes were given unto them." 

Two of the remaining three seals only, contain any additional 
intelligence, and these two must reach to the limit of the series. 
But we must notice that the three seals area reply to the four 
preceding ones. 

The red horse rider lifts up his great sword and says I am 
conqueror; and heaven replies by showing the dead are still liv- 
ing and speaking at the altar where in figure they fell. The 
white horse is driven from your territory, but the souls that trusted 
it are here wearing white robes. The black horse says it is night, 
I have put out all the lights and am doing business in the dark, 
and the pale horse replies, the morning is grey and is coming 
white. 

But the sixth seal opens and the field is cleared of the enemy. 
All the work of man and pride of earth perish. The earthquake 
follows that shakes downfall governments and all world depen- 
dencies of every kind, even the sun and moon, as related to the 
world, refuse to longer lend their light, and all worldly leaders 
called "stars;" governments called " mountains," and islands 
the smaller tribes or nations; and the visible heavens show the 
utter wreck of the enemies' power, and that here at last number 
three prevails. Men's hearts shall fail them, and their last de- 
spairing cry is to get away from the face of the Little Lamb and 
calling on the mountains to hide them. Whoever has read this 
seal series through has experienced a disappointment at the mea- 
ger and intangible results. But they are like finding one sandal 
or one glove, worth nothing without the other. The trumpets 
contain the response with the same arrangement as to the groups 
of three and of four that we saw in the seals. But here we are in- 
tercepted by another part. 



50 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

SUPPLEMENT.— THE REFORMATION. 

It proves to be a supplement to the sixth seal. It gives an 
account of the rise of the power which overthrew the nations or 
world powers. As the pentecost followed the finished ministry of 
the Little Lamb on earth so this supplement follows the six seals 
which represent him and gives us the signal of the second pente- 
cost, that of the reformation begun. The world powers are repre- 
sented as in bondage to four angels that stand on the four corners 
of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth from blowing 
destructively upon the sea, the people, or " the earth," or the 
heavenly foliage till the servants of God be sealed in their fore- 
head. " And I saw another angel ascending from the sunrising 
having the seal of the living God." As the disciples after his 
ascension were told to tarry and restrain preaching till they had 
been endued with power from on high, so here a restraint is 
commanded now upon the world powers, the four corners of the 
earth, instead of upon the apostles, as at the first, till the servants 
of God are sealed in the forehead; or till the new pentecost is 
had. In the time of the sixth seal this supplement signifies an- 
other, a second pentecost, a preparation and beginning of the 
reformation. 

To "seal them in the forehead" is to cause them to under- 
stand the word and to be thus led by the Little Lamb and by the 
Holy Spirit. 

The absence of the Lamb and the presence of the Holy 
Spirit is signified by placing this supplement at the close of the 
seals series, as showing his mission ended and the Spirit coming 
to take his place, etc. He ascended, but returned by his spirit 
and his word, and so that word now takes effect the second time, 
that is in the time of the sixth seal, but following it here on the 
Cloth to signify its pentecostal import. It is the first view of 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 5 1 

the Reformation. This Reformation pentecost differs from that 
first one at Jerusalem. That one looked down into the dark 
ages; this one stands in the early twilight and looks toward the 
rising sun of the coming white day. In the first one the power 
to speak was direct from heaven and was signified by tongues as 
of fire upon the apostles' heads, but this one by sealing the 
servants of God in the forehead. 

This reformation pentecost is also attended with a numbering, 
suggestive of changed circumstances. In this respect they 
resemble Israel starting out for the promised land, and hence our 
supplement connects a numbering with the sealing and recording. 

The reformation started for the promised land, the fruition 
and glory we saw fully presented in the fourth chapter. The 
Egypt they are leaving is the dark ages, their destiny the world 
for Christ, and the world was restrained for that purpose, drama- 
tized here by the angels that hold the four winds, enjoined not to 
allow them to blow so as to prevent the rise of the reformation; 
and, as after the black night of the dark ages daylight comes 
from the East, it is said to have been " the angel of the sun ris- 
ing," that is the white horse again, only the difference in the 
point of view from which it is taken. The white horse is in 
number four; the angel light of God's truth that dawned in the 
reformation is in the supplement to the group of three. But 
this sealing and numbering are combined. The sealing is a 
preparation and receiving of the servants of God, and a number- 
ing is to take strict account of them as if in the presence of 
some imminent and impending danger. In the world at this 
time we see the grey horse. It is not clear daylight and God's 
servants have to live in the twilight of the rising day and hence 
caution and protection is sought by separation between those who 
are turned toward the happy Canaan ahead, and those who cling 
to the flesh pots of the dark ages. But may we not discover 



52 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

also another enemy and danger in the field at this time that 
required such caution in the sealing and numbering? 

We will watch for that as we go, but the presence of another 
enemy is not in view yet, for our warriors are in two armies, 
white and black, but as we have directly to traverse the same 
ground in the trumpets, we may find another disturbing cause 
that led to so much emphasis, as the space occupied by this sup- 
plement would properly lead us to suspect. The possibility of 
our making another find on the Golden Cloth is heightened 
again by the peculiar way in which this numbering is expressed 
and the large space it occupies, being more than the whole 
seven seals combined. There is an exactness about it that shows 
us it is taken from the heavenly view, for it states twelve tribes, 
and then states twelve thousand, and then sums it up as one 
hundred and forty-four thousand, and mat brings it in the num- 
ber " three" also, as well as its belonging to the group of three. 
But lest any might suppose that this referred to a definite num- 
ber being saved out of some one sect, another and a third state- 
ment comes from our dear old exile himself, who, after hearing 
the enumeration and the result announced, looked upon the 
multitude of the saved and said it was such as no man could 
number, and he included himself. The symbolic significance, 
therefore of putting the number both in the definite, and as an 
innumerable indefinite, is to express the thought that God is 
doing the numbering and he knows each and every one, but we 
do not, and later, if we follow the thread that leads from this 
area on the Cloth it carries us to other marks having a like bear- 
ing on God's special care for his children. The thread can be 
found in the third letter: "I will give him a white gem and a 
new name written upon it which no one knoweth but he that 
receiveth it," and it belongs to the thread that connects with all 
the promises. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 53 

Following the account of this numbering connected here with 
the sixth seal and here recognized and identified as the reforma- 
tion, we meet with another of those great chantings and it is full 
of good cheer; and the question rises since we find seven of 
these on the Cloth of Gold, on what provocation do they rise? 
First, which side is doing the most cheering or does it all come 
from one side? 

And if it proceeds all from one side, which thus far it does, 
is it made up of well mixed cheers and groans for the two sides, 
respectively? Well, we have had two instances at least of the bad 
side being worsted, but there were no hisses nor groans, and we 
do hope, for the high opinion we have of the company we are in 
it will hold out that way; for in all my experience in reform work, 
the hisses and stones always proceeded from the other side. This 
seems to support my early good opinion of the kind of company 
my princely old hermit would seek. 

And he has, though in exile contrived to see, or been given 
to see, these wondrous unutterable things and to hear music and 
shouting, and to see those I take to be on his side, or he on theirs, 
refraining from a hiss when the enemy gets a fall. Perfect 
silence thus far, and shouting only when the right side scores a 
victory; a decent enough crowd, and makes us feel at home again. 
But I am off again into a reverie with the hermit. Something 
strange here. Is there another one of those illusive arts spread 
here for my feet, to prevent my going further, to loose me from 
my thread? We did not have a thread; we had two series: one of 
seals and one of trumpets. And we went through the seals, and 
the supplement that followed and got to the end of the system, 
except one. The supplement contains not only the sealing of the 
servants of God in the forehead and their numbering and record- 
ing in the Lamb's book of life, but they are seen coming out of 
Egypt. That is the bondage of the dark ages, and they are moving 



54 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

with their great tent or tabernacle, for it says expressly: "And he 
that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them, 
and the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall be their 
shepherd and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life." 
These things are not spoken of the ages to come, but of this 
present age where every part of this Cloth of Gold is fulfilled. 
No part of it refers to the life in the eternal ages. 

There is not a word about the life beyond till we reach the 
great white throne at the further end. All here is about this world. 
When the exile had seen that the " one hundred and forty-four 
thousand," numbered by God, was a company that no man could 
number, of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, 
and having palms in their hands and dressed in white robes, they 
cry with a great voice, saying: "Salvation unto our God which 
sitteth on the throne and unto the Lamb." And all the angels 
were standing round about the throne, and the elders and the four 
living creatures. And they fell before the throne on their faces 
and worshipped God, saying: " Amen. Blessing and glory and 
wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be 
unto our God for ever and ever." 

" And one of the elders said to me: These which are arrayed 
in white robes who are they and whence came they?" "And I 
say unto him, my lord, thou knowest." And he said to me: 
" These are they which came out of the great tribulation, and 
they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Little Lamb. 

"Therefore are they before the throne of God and they serve 
him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne 
shall spread his tabernacle over them." "They shall hunger no 
more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon 
them, nor any heat, for the 'Little Lamb/ which is in the midst 
of the throne, shall be their shepherd and shall guide them unto 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 55 

fountains of waters of life; and God shall wipe away every tear 
from their eyes." 

The appearance that this sealed multitude is a saved multitude 
beyond the grave instead of here in this world must be explained. 
It is true that the promises made to them require eternity for their 
fulfillment, but, failing to observe that our seer does not notice 
any dividing line between the life here and the life hereafter, has 
thrown the interpreters off the track and caused them to look into 
another world for what belongs to this. 

The seer of Patmos as none other is synthetic. He effaces 
distinctions we are long accustomed to observe and which stand 
in our way when we try to follow him and hold him to our 
analysis. With him eternal life is not a thing of the future as 
with us. His words in the gospel are: "He that believeth on 
the Son hath eternal life," hath it now and here. Again, "He 
that heareth my word and believeth him that sent me hath eternal 
life and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death 
into life." This fact of the seer's conception of eternal life is so 
necessary to understanding the Golden Cloth that it can not be 
lost sight of for a moment. Eternal life begun here is contin- 
uous, and the seer never allows us in any of his writings to see a 
dividing line where we cease to live here and begin to live above. 
This supplement to the sixth seal should be headed with the 
words: The Great Exodus, or The Great Reformation. There it 
is, marching, a white army of pilgrims, with palms in their hands, 
shouting: "Salvation unto our God," and God's great tabernacle 
going with them. 

We get lost easily because we cease to regard this as vision in 
which facts and not persons, nor places, are dramatized. We see 
this multitude of the sealed host and at once feel that the seer 
actually saw them; but he did not. He saw them with his mind. 
They were presented to his mind and he presents them to our 



56 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

mind. But, if in looking at these great actions in this most 
wondrous drama our attention is caught away from the acts of the 
stage by the pictures and painted scenery on the walls; or if we 
turn aside to ask what door was that which opened to admit the 
actors we shall not understand the play, here a most sacred part. 
Neither should we become too much interested in the minor per- 
sonages, mere household or stage servants, who bear part in this 
great age-lasting drama. Our princely seer saw and knew all 
this. He felt himself a guest in the royal chambers of the Prince 
of the house of God, and when he saw the countless multitudes of 
the redeemed, all happy and glorious coming out of the dark 
ages waving their palms and shouting their paeans of praise, he 
waited till one of the elders, as if anticipating his inquiring 
heart, asked if he knew who these people were: "And I say unto 
him my Lord thou knowest." Then he is told. It is the whole 
multitude of the redeemed, not of any one age, but here pre- 
sented and as coming out of Egypt and moving toward Canaan 
the fruition still ahead, because the Reformation dominates the 
cast. The element of time is entirely effaced in these dramatic 
actions and songs. So that the millennial state is preserved in 
all the seven great oratorios in which the converted world powers, 
the elders and the multitude join in singing and praise. That 
is, the last triumphant state is anticipated and their choruses go 
with the Lamb down the ages toward its realization. It is in 
harmony with his teaching of eternal life as having begun here, 
and finding continuance on through eternity without a time- 
marked change, that we find the use of "heaven" and "earth," 
etc. The righteous are said to " dwell in heaven " while here 
below, and "them that dwell in heaven " are opposed by "them 
that dwell upon the earth." And "heaven" is also used to 
express the whole broad field of God's kingdom as it is viewed 
in prophecy, triumphant and all-embracing. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 57 

It is because the scholars have brought to this Cloth of Gold 
a body of refinements obtained from the school of Augustine, 
and all the schools since, wholly unsuited to its method, that it 
remains a dumb oracle. It speaks from a different world of 
thought. It sees things as they are in their greatest and inner- 
most natures and not by their accidents. There is perfect order 
in the presentation of the matter, but it is order based on inner 
resemblances, which when once discerned shakes the mind with 
profoundest impressions, and leads the heart to the loud acclaims: 
"Never man spake as this man. " It is this deeper likeness or 
identity of things seemingly diverse and their being united to 
the seer's thought on the nature of life as continuous, etc., that 
misleads the searcher for its meaning. 

SEVENTH SEAL. 

There remains yet another seal, not broken. It is the seventh 
and last seal. It is disconnected from the series and placed at 
the end of a long supplement. That signifies that it comes at 
the end of the story as now related on both sides; but it does not 
extend the thought. "And when He had opened the seventh 
seal there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an 
hour." What does that silence import? It is the Sabbath. Why 
the Sabbath? Because the entire structure rests upon this 
septenary cast. It rests upon the historic fact that the heavens 
and the earth were created in six days and God rested upon the 
seventh day. 

But why base the septenary structure upon the seven days of 
creation? 

Because this is the new creation, or the completion of the old 
one, and right here on the Cloth of Gold and near the farther 
end in plain written Greek it says, " Old things are passed away, 



58 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

behold I make all things new;" and at our first chant, and before 
the Lamb took the book to open it, three laudations were chanted 
to him that sat on the throne, because he had " created all things," 
and again when the Little Lamb sat upon the throne with him 
they were jointly praised in a sevenfold ascription as creator, etc. 
It was the lionlike task of breaking the seals that no one else 
could be found to essay, that formed his six labors of the new 
creation; and as in that creation God worked six days, symbolic 
days, so the Lamb has six symbolic days for work which carry us 
down to the Sabbath, which is the millennium we saw at the begin- 
ning, called here the fruition, etc. That is the day he is going 
to rest, tor his seals are still opening, and that rest was symbol- 
ized or dramatized just as Moses symbolized God's rest, but God's 
labor goes on until that rest comes. He has taken our Little 
Lamb into the administration with him, and breaking the seals of 
the new creation is his labor, after which he too is at rest with his 
Father and all his saints. But he is still in the labor of war upon 
the power of darkness which this precious Cloth of Gold unfolds 
to view. His work is the continuance of the work of creation. 
It is a part of it, and the carrying out of it, and the end and ob- 
ject for which it was made, and one of the titles he wears is 
"The Beginning of the Creation of God." 

God says, " Behold I create all things new," and so creative 
time is observed and the Sabbath is kept in prophetic symbol. 
The work rests upon the patterns of creative time; hence seven 
seals, seven trumpets, seven churches, seven spirits, etc., etc. 

We have not only a foreview of all that is important in the 
world's future from that day when this Cloth was woven but it is 
a biography of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that is to 
be at the end of his war upon the world powers, written, drama- 
tized and sung and here preserved. 

As the field of action is this earth, there let us pivot our minds, 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 59 

and neither allow them to be transported above nor permit our 
attention to be engulfed by any drapery or stage belongings, but 
by the acts. The number " four " is our unfailing signal for 
earthly, and " three " for the heavenly, and " seven " for eternity, 
almightyness and fulfillment, etc. Yonder at the further end of 
the Cloth lies the white field of a thousand mystic years where 
there is no red or black spot nor even a pale one. But he goes 
out of this world in order to conquer it. The veil of the temple, 
that veil which divided the holy from the most holy place, was 
rent in twain when his soul went out of his body and his apostle 
said, "That veil was his flesh. " 

This change from the world of flesh to the world of spirit is 
here preserved in the plan of the Cloth of Gold, and on the two 
sides of that veil are embroidered the career, till the end of time, 
of the Little Lamb, written on both sides. He on one side and 
this world on the other, our bodies and their abode here, but our 
spirits and our citizenship there. 

Every subject of the book will be viewed from both sides of 
the veil, and we will follow the series as they go through. In 
parting with the system of the seals we remark three great points 
gained. First. The world triumphing over the Little Lamb and 
his followers for a long period ; second, the re-appearance of the 
light breaking out in which the servants of God are sealed in the 
forehead and numbered for the exodus, the Reformation, etc.; 
third, the complete collapse of the world powers at the end of the 
sixth seal, that is of all human government and of society as 
organized on human self-will as against the righteous will of 
God. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Now since Christ comes to us by the seals and the apostles by 
the trumpets let us look for a correspondence. The seven seals 
and seven trumpets correspond to the seven churches, or candle- 
sticks, and these rest upon the fact of the seven lamps of fire in 
the holy place of the tabernacle, and they in turn rest upon the 
seven days of creation whereupon all the sevens rest as a fact 
which they preserve by the structure of the work. A scene is here 
presented in the temple. An angel stands over the altar, having 
a golden censer and much incense was given to him to add to the 
prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which is before 
the throne, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the 
saints went up before God out of the angel's hand. "And the 
angel taketh the censer and he filled it with the fire of the altar 
and cast it upon the earth and there followed thunder and light- 
nings and an earthquake." Here is a full and notable description 
of the first pentecost. It begins, or prefaces the trumpet series, 
just as the second or Reformation pentecost supplements the seals. 
Here is one of those illustrations of the perfect order by inward 
or essential resemblance. The seal series and trumpet series are 
thus bound and knit together by two of the mightiest demonstra- 
tions that ever shook the earth. 

The second pentecost comes at the further end of the seals 
lying side by side with the sixth, and the first pentecost precedes 
the first of the trumpets in the position here as it did in fact, at 
the beginning. With the trumpets we start again from the begin- 
ning, and the presentation of the pentecost assures us of that fact 

60 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 61 

and embodies the cast of the commission to the apostles and its 
very circumstances. 

These two series, the seals and trumpets, are thus united, not 
by outward circumstances as we see things but by the inner like- 
ness, by the calendar of God's events, as seen in their essence 
related to the truth, the only truth, beside which all else is as but 
lies. The first and the second pentecosts are now here in hand and 
they promise we shall see a third one further on. These two 
mighty facts bind these two series together. The command to 
the apostles was " to go into all the world and preach the gospel 
to every creature," but the order restrained them to wait till they 
were empowered from on high. So they continued daily with 
one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and with 
Mary, the mother of Jesus, and there came to them the Holy 
Spirit promised and then the trumpets sounded. Peter preached 
the resurrection. This waiting and prayer-meeting is marked by 
incense. An angel stands over the altar and much incense is 
given to him. The smoke of the incense, that is the prayers went 
up to God out of the angel's hand. 

Then came the reply from heaven, The Holy Spirit. Fire 
from the altar now is cast out. That is the preaching. " Fire " 
means God's word in every instance, and now it is sounded for 
the first time and resulted in the conversion of three thousand 
persons. 

The angel took fire from the altar in the golden censer 
and added to it " the prayers of all the saints," represented 
there by the Apostles and company, and cast the incense (prayers) 
and the fire together upon the earth. 

That is the going out of the Gospel from the Pentecost where 
they had received the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer and in 
fulfillment of the promise and from which they sent out the 
trumpet call attended with prayer. 



62 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

It is all enacted here in our sight to give us the starting 
point from which the story of the trumpets is to proceed. 

It gives us in drama the origin and the going out of the gos- 
pel dispensation. In its source it is called " thunder," that is 
the voice of God, and "voices," that is those who preached it, and 
" lightnings," that is the effect upon the hearts and minds of 
those who heard it, and an "earthquake," that was the effect 
upon society. 

This exactly suits the facts about the apostles going out to 
preach. It tells us plainly the trumpets mean the apostles, and 
that they prayed at their waiting, and their prayers went up to 
God and were heard, and that then they went everywhere, pray- 
ing and preaching the word. Now as the apostles were in a state 
of preparation for this work by the order and appointment of 
the Little Lamb, their record on the Golden Cloth shows the 
preparation for the sounding which is a preface to the seven 
trumpets, and then it sums up all this by saying that the "seven 
angels prepared themselves to sound." We have seen their prep- 
aration. And the first one sounded "and there followed hail " 
that is judgment, and "fire," that is the word of God that pro- 
voked or incited it, and mingled with blood: that is the result of 
it — persecution; "and they were cast upon the earth." 

They took effect in the earth where God's truth was interfer- 
ing with men's affairs; and "the third part of the earth was burnt 
up," cleared so much of earthliness, became Christian — destroyed 
in its earthly nature to partake of the heavenly: and "the third 
part of the trees" or foliage "was burnt up " and "all green 
grass was burnt up," that is the righteous, great and small. 
" Green " means living as opposed to dead, and " living " means 
living to God the source of all life or- dwelling in heaven while 
here, etc., hence the flora and the foliage refer to those who are 
living in God, green trees planted by the rivers of waters, etc. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 63 

But how should these be burnt up if God's word was the fire? It 
means they were consumed by the mingling of fire, blood and 
hail, not in their flesh, but destroyed as believers, as having union 
with the Little Lamb. They were killed, wherein they differed 
from them that dwell upon the earth. Those who were not 
killed bodily died spiritually. Did the apostles' preaching come 
to such disastrous ends? 

And the exile replies: They have killed all the twelve but 
me, and I am in exile and nearly fifty years have passed since I 
left the promising pentecost that seemed to foreshow the subjec- 
tion of the world to the Little Lamb, the hero of my song. I 
am here alone banished. My companions long dead and those 
of us who remain were in much despair and our fearful hearts 
were asking: " What has become of him who promised us and 
said 'Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the world,' 
and upon a Lord's day when I was in the spirit he appeared to 
me and there I saw him walking amid the seven golden candle- 
sticks with feet like molten brass and holding in his right hand 
seven stars, and a white stole of pure linen hung to his feet, and 
a girdle of gold around his loins, and his hair and head were 
white as wool and as white as snow, and his eyes as a flame of 
fire, and his face as the sun shineth in his strength," and I fell 
down at his feet as a dead man and he laid his right hand upon 
me, and his voice which was as the sound of many waters said to 
me, *'Fear not, I am the living one, the First and the Last." 

These things which I knew as of the Christ, come to me now 
as in some new relation to the exile and by a new channel, 
through my having found the Cloth of Gold and studying the 
work of this matchless prince. As we look and dream and seek 
oblivion from the world by hiding within his thoughts we are 
accompanied by thoughts which seem as familiar and welcome as 
meeting old friends in alien lands. I am at a loss to explain 



64 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

these and similar analogies that start up in the mind in follow- 
ing his wondrous story. Solitude with the mystic of the Agean 
has by some means mixed with the experiences of my own life so 
I cannot clearly discern where my own ends and his begins. 
They have gotten mingled and my own dream seems to have 
somewhat as if the net he had spread to snatch away my attention 
at the first had now held me the closer to the genius of the 
author. Do I dare hope I may find among these trumpets 
sounds any part of my own experience with my own age that 
shall bear analogy to his experience with his age? 

Well, yes. It is associated in some inexplainable way with 
every thought that ever led my heart to ask some question of the 
old family Bible between whose lids it lay, safely kept, but never 
read, the outside looked upon, the words pronounced, but never 
read. Or, if read, the secret kept, but who could keep such a 
secret and for what ! To be read would give to the world the 
mightiest impulse to go forward it has ever had. The present 
is more than ripe for it. The new magazine must be opened. 
The seals must be and are opened, the trumpets, the apostles do 
sound. To be known discards the present effete and opens the 
new era. Hidden from preceding ages, but it must not be from 
this. On a lower plane we can see what we sought in vain upon 
what, to our age, seems a higher and the very highest. 

What we conceive to be characteristic of the new age is the 
open door through which these truths must be read and through 
which a light falls by whose brightness the word becomes new, 
reading easy and natural and life a new power. The first half of 
the Bible has been read, namely, love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, might and strength, etc., and the other half is in pain 
to be entered in the oncoming age, namely, " thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself." By this light we read. We will keep the 
seer for our hero. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 65 

Through this light from a rift in the intervening night we 
see a new age; an age of princes; a light seems to have fallen by 
which it easy to read the wondrous world that lies just before us. 
We proceed to follow the threads of the Cloth, and the divisions 
and relations of the groups, and the attitudes and actions which 
the dear old hermit seems himself not to have known how to in- 
terpret at the first. Was all this cunning handiwork of weaving 
and embroidery and coloring done for an age to come, that has 
just begun to send a few stray lights from its effulgence, one of 
which rays has fallen upon our day that makes easy reading of 
what till now was a meaningless puzzle or an acrostic for prison- 
ers in dungeons to play with? 

Not all for any age, but to every age it unrolls the whole truth 
till time ends. 

All this may find some relevancy yet. 

But we have heard the first trumpet, and it is the first of the 
four that speak ill for the fortunes of the Little Lamb and the 
little Church and the lonely exile. His exile testifies sufficiently 
to the truth that things went hard for his cause. The second 
angel sounded, and, as it were, a great mountain went down, but 
it went burning with fire and was "cast into the sea." The 
mountain rises out of the earth, and stands above it and looks 
down upon it, and means worldly governments that men of the 
earth cast up for themselves to rule over them. The sea is a 
mobile and changeable mass and here means the people con- 
sidered as such, apart from government. The " fire, " God's 
word. We see that while our old friend fared so badly 
and his cause was so much worsted in the conflict, after all his 
gospel "fire" burnt a great mountain till it toppled over and 
sank into the sea, to the same level it sprang from and went back 
and became part of it. So the battle is not all lost to him and 
to his hero. It is old pagan Rome he sees go down, the last of 

5 



66 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

the four universal monarchies shown to old Babylon's great king 
by Daniel in the interpretation of his dream of the great image 
he had seen in vision. The sea was made sick from this burning 
mountain having quenched its flame and burning lavas in its 
waters. 

Here the result is a commingling of mixed elements that 
show chemical fermentations and death results to much of the 
former state of things where none of the " fire " of God's truth 
had ever gone before. 

The fire in spending itself will lose much of its virtue till it 
is gone out; and so must the sea lose an amount of its former 
composition in proportion to the influences of the chemical 
potencies engaged. But we are now viewing the case from the 
standpoint of the exile, that is, we are especially watching what 
are the fortunes of the heavenly side, or number three, and the 
vantage here is to the enemy, for one-third of everything is des- 
troyed. That is, the heavenly side of the contest is going badly, 
being quenched, and yet imparting somewhat that hurts the 
commerce of pure paganism hitherto unalloyed with the word of 
God. 

This is more definite information than we had in the chalk 
outline of the seals, where we had little to go by,except the red horse 
with the swordsman and the black horse with scales, weighing 
and selling God's wheat as if in retaliation for the damage done 
to the commerce of the pagan temples by that word. We are 
following the same order exactly, and receiving renewed corrobor- 
ation in the chronological and regular order and getting closer 
definition, and also have the advantage of having two such wit- 
nesses speak of the same conditions from standpoints that give us 
an enlarged view, adding credibility to the plan of the Cloth, and 
its harmony with the light of the world's recorded history when 
properly understood. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 67 



THE THIRD TRUMPET. 

MAHOMED AND THE OCCIDENT. 

"The third angel sounded and there fell from heaven a star, 
burning as a torch or a lamp." 

A star is a representative person in the usage of this book. 
The seven angels of the seven churches are the seven stars in his 
hand. They served the churches only in symbolic usage, as those 
who read to the churches the letters written, and do not represent 
any actual officer of the church. The angel that ascends from 
the sunrising to seal the servants of God in the forehead in this 
way represents the entire Reformation. The angel in the temple 
at the pentecost, who offers incense we have just a moment ago 
noticed, is in the same way the angel, or star of the pentecost, and 
so here the star represents Mahomedanism. It must be kept in 
mind that all such symbolic use as here given is confined to such 
use as connected with this story, and bears none of its other 
features, or accidents, that connect or relate it in any way to any 
other matter. These seven trumpets are blown by seven angels. 
If they were coming down from on high they would be called 
stars; or if they were morally fallen, or degraded, they would be 
shown as both heavenly and earthly creatures. In this manner, 
impression of fact is here conveyed. 

This star fell from heaven, or was seen as on the earth and 
against heaven. It was like a torch or a lamp. The lamp is a 
church, and this star had a semblance to, or was like a church, a 
mock religion. It does not mean he ever was in heaven, the 
abode of God's holy place, but seen as a star on the earth, and 
earthy, requires by symbolic correlation to suppose he fell. That 
is, as compared with the good and heavenly, he is fallen and bad. 
Here we remind ourselves that everything is good or bad, high or 



68 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

low, in this account simply and only as it is related to the subject 
of this story, the heavenly hero. 

A leader should be in heaven favor and not down on the 
earth. This star leader fell upon "the rivers and upon the foun- 
tains of the waters." The waters are the people considered apart 
from government or leader, and so here one goes to them; but 
not to all people of the world, but upon "the fountains" of them, 
that country from which the race flowed westward. That country 
of rivers in the East, not any especial rivers, because "the foun- 
tains" had to flow, and they flowed from the country of the East. 
There the star fell. The name of this fallen star is "wormwood," 
which means bitter, and his ruling made things bitter, for the 
people he ruled became bitter also. The waters were turned to 
wormwood, and many men died: a bitter persecuting population 
with a bitter leader brought death and suffering. 

These " men," who died of the bitter waters, are not in any 
way described in character, as the " green grass " and "trees," or 
as some of them that perished in the sea when the mountain went 
down, which are said to have "had life," etc. The character of 
them that suffered is all found in the word "men" and that bitter- 
ness killed them. This star we are looking at here, lying upon 
the ground, is located on the Golden Cloth at a point in the 
chronology that would suggest Mahomed; and second, his char- 
acter exactly fits Mahomed, as does the character of his followers; 
and third, the persons who are being killed, have no character or 
class assigned to them, as to those whose souls were under the 
altar, or those sealed in the reformation, etc. This tallies well 
with the fact that at the time this star fell, it was so far removed 
from Patmos and the fountain of truth that the light of God in 
the world had become extinguished, and the kind of men whom 
the Mahomedan powers put to death, and who wore a Christian 
appearance, are not described as followers of the Little Lamb, but 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 69 

simply as "men." This is a circumstance of importance as hold- 
ing within the view of this book, the field of action where the 
drama is going on: that is the whole world, as included as the 
East and the West. The " mountain" and "sea" means the West 
and the "rivers and fountains" the East. And, though it is ob- 
served how little attention the East receives on the Cloth, it must 
be kept within the general view as a part of the "nations, tribes, 
tongues and peoples," with whom the Little Lamb will take 
account at some time. 

But the line, along whicn the battle rages, is westward, and 
we will look to see the hottest contest along the Western line and 
feel sure, from our experience thus far, we have found a carefully 
woven story in the Cloth, one that has no fugitive parts. And, 
if we will watch closely that white linen thread that runs right 
through that white plume and, so following it, we shall be able 
all the time to see the center of the battle; for this wondrous 
fabric will not wander off to speak of the vagaries and vulgarities 
of this world's affairs apart from their relations to the Little 
Lamb — the white-plumed warrior that rides the white horse. To 
him all the multitudes are shouting. It was this charm that I 
sought and found in this princely exile, that he had become so 
well absorbed in his own visioned hero, the Little Lamb, and 
then worked his career so ingeniously into this Golden Cloth, 
where. I may bathe my mind as in the clear far off waters of the 
Agean. 

All he will have to do with this world's whole program of bad 
business is its destruction, and my old friend seems to enjoy the 
prospect, and so do I. We will keep an eye on the Cloth, it may 
prove a heavenly war map of the ages instead of the old hermit's 
dream; and what if it should? 



7o MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

FOURTH TRUMPET. 
THE GREAT APOSTACY. 

The fourth and the last of this group of trumpets sounded, 
and " the third part of the sun was smitten and the third part of 
the moon." 

The sun gives the light to this world, and here refers to that 
kind of light, which belongs to the world's intelligence in com- 
mon, without special reference to any meaning about its first 
source, etc., but as accepted by all as they do the rain, and day and 
night, etc. 

And the moon is a secondary dependence and does its office 
to relieve a part of the night and the stars give a still lesser light of 
a borrowed kind, and all these light-givers are suffering now as well 
as the word of God, which was extinguished in the sea when the 
mountain sank. So it looks like God's light and the general in- 
telligence of the world are both suffering, and darkness of an 
awful kind must follow their extinguishment. In addition to this 
smiting of a third part that is so hurtful to our heavenly side, 
our number " three," these bodies were entirely extinguished for 
a third part, and total universal darkness reigned. There is no 
longer any light from the heavens for the sun is gone out. There 
is no light from the moon, the stars have fallen and their lights all 
gone out, not even a light to be seen in the window. The Bible 
in some way lost and the world's lamps gone out. 

A terrible looking place is this. Great leaders apostatizing 
and darkness following till you cannot see anything; for " one- 
third of the time utter darkness." What did the old reformer and 
saint think of this sight; a sight that Abraham felt when the dark 
shadow fell over his bright promise as deep night. Here is that 
night. It is the great apostacy and cannot get any darker. The 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 71 

black horse rides the world around now. Here is a famine of 
God's word, a famine of light. That black thread started from 
this large area of black found here on the Cloth, but from this 
point on toward the further side it becomes slighter, passing into 
the grey and all ends white at the close. There must be a change. 
The darkest hour is just before day and we shall look for day- 
break. 

How strange it all seems now that the story of this wisest old 
prince should not only be read in the Greek text sprinkled over the 
face of the Cloth, but also acted in drama before our very eyes and 
chanted into our very ears, but also that it is seen in colors as art, 
of the simple, but rich and oriental in beauty and power of ex- 
pression. And more incredibly that he should have so inwrought 
these that we should never be able to read his story at all, till we 
could read it in all these ways and see its ever-changing per- 
spective, its grace of beauty and literally and truly fulfilled in our 
actual world doings. Did head and heart and eye and ear 
ever so unite before? Did fancy, fact and faith ever before 
appear so interwoven and knit together into one magic Cloth of 
Gold? It leads out into a plane of gold where a city is seen 
whose foundation stones also are made of gems too costly to 
wear, even in small bits, upon our persons here below. 

What an entertainment ! But we have gotten to the darkest 
of the dark ages; complete destruction of light, and the old 
exile's side of the contest nowhere to be found except in the 
sea where the dissolved chemicals of the extinguished flame of 
God's truth from the burning mountain that sank down and left 
its stored powers in solution, there to be blown by the winds and 
to rise and fall and lash all shores with the waves of the sea; 
the peoples among whom pagan Rome went down in utter dark- 
ness. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THREE WOES TO THE WORLD. 
DIABOLICAL PENTECOST. 

Our group of four comes to an end. We have seen the great 
apostacy. We now have our group of three to follow and they 
may bring better news to the exile and to the side of the Little 
Lamb. 

The writing here is a little uncertain, but it says: "and I 
saw an ' eagle.' " The word " eagle " has been written there over 
another word. A learned body of revisers who consulted 
many ancient transcripts or manuscripts of the Cloth found a 
division among them as to whether the word was " angel " or 
" eagle " and they decided they would best call it "eagle" and 
some one has pencilled it on my Golden Cloth in deference to our 
learned men, but as neither the learned revisers nor the ancient 
copyists seem ever to have read the Cloth itself, they may be 
credited with the best intentions for the mistake. It is "angel " 
on the Cloth. This angel flies in mid heaven, saying with a great 
voice: "woe, woe, woe." Three times. 

That comes from a good source, and the angel is in his right 
place for good news, and he gives the heavenly signature of three 
and pronounces against the world, and the eagle cannot do either. 
In the first place an eagle has no business on this side the line at 
this time. He plays a part with the world creatures and is the 
ensign of Rome; and later lends his wings to a woman who is 
going the wrong way, and he has no place in such good mission 
as flying through heaven implies, for that is an appropriated ex- 

72 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 73 

pression in this book. The eagle might fall, or might fly, but 
not through heaven without a passport, and the moment he 
should apply for the passport he would be told his own proper 
place and that is, not to be preaching " woes " upon the world 
when he himself is of the earth and earthy, and can never pass 
the gate to be flying around pretending woes upon his own kind. 

Between these groups of three and four we now see plainly 
the battle line is drawn, and the pickets are out to see that the 
lines are kept up. That is one of the advantages we derive 
from understanding the mechanical plan of the map upon the 
Golden Cloth. We are relieved from the painful business of 
guessing, and can show it, and prove it, for there are no stray 
pieces, nor one that misfits in the slightest particular in all the 
seeming complexities in the meshes and marks of this wondrous 
Cloth. 

Knowing nothing of its contents many deny that anyone else 
may. Acquaintance with it shows that it cannot be taken by 
piecemeal. It is not composed of independent parts. Every part 
is so exactly related to every other that it will not suffer alteration 
or transposition. The temptation to take it apart or to rearrange it 
seems to have been apprehended by the author who left a curse 
upon him who should add to, or take from this Golden Cloth ; 
because its structure marred, or its lines defaced, might render it 
impossible to be understood in any degree, even at the time when 
it was designed it should be fully unfolded and shown to his peo- 
ple. This explains the positive statement that " angel" and not 
"eagle" is doing the good work here assigned, of declaring woes 
upon the world. 

But there are very few such mistakes, and all of them acciden- 
tal, and to understand the genius of the Cloth enables one to 
detect them without reference to manuscript authorities. But it 
is remarked by scholars and critics who have curiously scanned 



74 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

this heavenly magazine of truth, that it is composed with marks 
of unusual care. 

Now if this Cloth of Gold contains such a structure as to pro- 
tect itself from such verbal errors, what must we think of the 
mind that threaded together such a handiwork? What of him 
as an artist, an artizan, a prophet ? 

But our three "woes;" what are they ? The announcement 
comes from our side; that is the exile's side; and they are 
"woes" to them that dwell on the earth, "by reason of the other 
voices of the three trumpets which are yet to sound." 

These three trumpets announce and describe the three great 
"woes." They are described as woes "upon them that dwell 
upon the earth," and therefore in favor of them that dwell in 
heaven. In this respect the three last trumpets blow a sound 
against the four that preceded and gave bad news for our 
side. The three are on the right side. The heavenly powers 
and the world powers face as in battle. Until now it was 
"woe" to the apostles till they were killed or exiled; "woe" 
to the church till it was corrupted and trodden down ; 
"woe" to the word of God till it lay dead, till we were left 
in the deep darkness of the dark ages. But the change is 
announced and the battle is promised to go against " them that 
dwell on the earth and that kill the saints and who held a long 
undisputed millennium of darkness, crime and death." 

" And the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fall from 
heaven unto the earth and there was given unto him the key of 
the pit of the abyss." 

This star is described as having fallen, and in this same trum- 
pet he is described as "the angel of the abyss." His busi- 
ness belongs to the abyss where he is doorkeeper, as seen by his 
having "the key to the abyss." This "pit of the abyss" gives us 
a new point of view. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 75 

We have heaven (God's favor) from which the angel fell and 
we have the earth to which he fell, and we have the pit of the 
abyss to which he descended and where he seems to be most at 
home. 

This presents the possibility of a three cornered fight to fol- 
low, in the place of the two-sided contest between heaven that 
loved us and earth that killed and destroyed us. 

Here is a new field to be opened. We do not aim to show 
aversion to fashionable pietism in speaking in this strain, but 
plainly and simply to state the truth as we see it and as it is 
treated in this tale of the centuries. 

We started in with the exiled prince to interpret him into liv- 
ing thought. W T hen this fallen star opened the pit of the abyss 
there went up "a great smoke as the smoke of a great furnace." 
Now in all this about "the pit of the abyss" and heaven, we must 
strictly watch our Golden Cloth, for it is not treating general 
themes, nor even the one single theme of the contest in an irrel- 
evant manner. All these words are used within the range of the 
subject matter before us. 

We have no more right to import ideas into this Cloth, than 
we have to mar it by erasures, and the curse upon our poor eyes 
that has so blinded us we could not read it was that we imported 
theological ideas, born of a theological age, and these were insur- 
mountable obstacles to our reading the lessons so calmly, lying 
on the placid, confident face of this old Cloth of Gold, that could 
smile enough love and light, out through its golden bars, and 
lovely draperies to get itself well kept and cared for through all 
that night of horrors, and along the present grey age, until now 
its time to be made known to the world. 

This star was fallen as respects heaven, and raised as respects 
the earth from the pit of the abyss and there came out a great 
smoke upon the earth. 



76 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

It is the prince of darkness who now begins to appear in this 
story and who had been making preparations for a long dark time 
and now in the darkest spot he will ever find in this world, 
opens his kingdom. The conditions are favorable. No one can 
see where he is or where going, and for a king or leader, at such 
time one is as good as another, if he is bad enough. So this 
fallen star or risen daemon, has his day of pentecost. He is 
given a key which he takes and opens his kingdom and his in- 
cense is the " smoke as of a great furnace," and out of the abyss, 
and coming forth with the smoke are his commissioned apostles. 
It is because they came out of the earth that they are called 
locusts. The pit is their origin, the smoke their incense, destruc- 
tion their mission. This leaves no doubt upon their character. 
Here is a remarkable change upon the field of the Golden Cloth. 

This is now the opening of the great contest. Here is the 
simulation of the first, the heavenly pentecost. It is the first 
entrance of an extended parody yet to be fully revealed. The 
apostle Peter being simulated with key and opening the king- 
dom and incense of heaven, and a mission of love in the 
earth, here receives a counterpart from below. 

One offering love and forgiveness to a sinful and ungrateful 
world and being heralded by those who gave their lives freely 
for its riches, the other from the pit of the abyss sending a 
swarm of locust apostles to enlist a counter movement, not only 
with the aspect of war like that which the apostles of the Lamb 
first encountered, but also a stealthy imitation. The leader is a 
fallen star, and he will be well represented by his swarm of 
apostles. 

A study of the beings he sends out to represent his king- 
dom opened with the stifling smoke as from a furnace, will 
reflect his sentiments. They are called locusts by their having 
emerged from the earth. We must hold close in mind now 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 77 

that all is symbolic and full of great meanings. We can not go 
back to ask who gave that fallen star his key. It will all appear. 
The seer too, I promise, will give full light on that point. We 
are to watch the locusts, for they will move upon the earth for 
everything their craving leads them to, and we will find out 
from them also the condition of the world in their day. At 
least we may promise ourselves all this, and follow on. 

Both " the sun and the air are darkened by the smoke of the 
pit." We could hardly think it could get darker, but this shows 
us that we have moved a little further toward the light, and that 
is true; so this smoke not only set back the early approaches of 
the day dawn, but the medium, the atmosphere, without which 
we could neither live nor see, is " darkened." That would im- 
prove the conditions for the work of an impostor, and this one 
bids fair to be such by darkening the place where his operations 
are to be carried on. 

These locusts instead of having tongues of fire upon their 
heads which symbolized the holy work of the Little Lamb's 
apostles, are armed with instruments of death and destruction. 

To these locusts are given power, not of the heavenly kind 
but as the scorpions of the earth have power. Their power is 
to sting and poison men. This power they have for only a 
limited time — five months, or during the natural life of a locust, 
symbolically taken. 

" Their power is in their tails and in their teeth." Not in flam- 
ing tongues. What they can not devour with teeth they can 
poison with the tail and then eat. They go forth out of the 
smoke and it was said unto them that they should not eat the 
grass, the flora of the world, " nor any tree," the foliage of the 
world, "nor any (other) green thing," or thing that belongs 
to God. 

That is the notice given to keep off the ground numbered 



78 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

"three." The three things named give the heavenly signature, 
and being " living things " tell where they belong, and their 
permissions upon such as " have not the seal of God in the fore- 
head," all say " No trespassing on God's grounds allowed." 

Green means living, and we found the emerald throne to be 
a living throne, and that some of the creatures that were killed in 
the sea were living or had life, etc. They had more than physi- 
cal life. 

Now another fact has come into view that is that while we 
saw that dark picture where all light had gone out, the locusts 
appear at a later time when the smoke retarded the approaching 
light which had in some measure begun to return ; and now in 
the second place, that God's cause had thus gained some ground. 
The exile's side had somehow gotten a fresh start, for these 
locusts receive holy orders not to hurt or devour the flora or the 
foliage or other greenage ; and that means that no foraging will 
be allowed or eating of anything that has life in it or belongs to 
the Little Lamb. 

That would seem to cover about everthing his locustship could 
desire or could subsist upon. They are limited to a dry dead 
diet. The contrast is a perfect antithesis. The green or living 
things are God's, the dead and dry are not. We notice that 
every step thus far taken has been proven by three facts or wit- 
nesses. How comforting all this and what a promise of a solid 
basis for our ventures. 

We now notice also that while the flora is God's heritage and 
is protected, those whom the locusts eat are called " men " that 
do not have the seal of God in the forehead. These " men " who 
are food for the locusts do not have the seal of God in the fore- 
head implies clearly that there are some who have, and as they 
are placed in opposition to the flora and foliage and greenage 
we have come safely to a point within the sixth seal supplement 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 79 

and the sealing of the servants of God in the forehead. There 
is the place on the Cloth plainly marked. This fifth trumpet 
breaks in upon a time the darkest of it ending with the fourth 
trumpet; we find men now being sealed with the seal of God. 
We now go over to the supplement of the sixth seal to find who 
it was that ordered these locusts to keep off the Lord's grounds. 
We find it was he who commanded the four angels that hold 
the four winds to hold on to the winds and to not let them blow 
"till we have sealed the servants of God in the forehead." That 
was done by the Little Lamb coming to the front again. He 
orders the winds to stay from blowing down the world powers till 
he seals the servants of God in the forehead. 

Back of that we can not go, only that he who stilled both the 
sea and the winds while on earth has reappeared in power that 
limits the hitherto unlimited powers of darkness, and so at the 
point in the story of the Cloth where the locusts came out to 
view we have the Little Lamb in the field again, and now en- 
gaged in protecting his servants against their ravages. 

But a second limit is put upon the locusts. " It was given 
them that they should not kill them, that is the men who had not 
the seal of God, etc., and whom they had the power to hurt, but 
"that they should torment them five months." 

The possibility of eating the men without killing them, shows 
that eating here is symbolic, as the Little Lamb himself used it 
when he said: " unless you eat of my body and drink my blood, 
you have no life in you"; and, as it is, our exile prince, who gave 
us those words in his biography of the Little Lamb we here 
accept from him so, incidentally dropped, what he there meant by 
" eat my body." That is, these locusts wanted to use these men 
just as their leader used them. So, to eat them here means to 
enslave and to use them. But to this limit the locusts are con- 
fined. And by contrast, or antithesis, we here learn what it is to 



80 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

seal in the forehead. It is to so instruct and impress one in mind 
and heart, as that he will go heavenward, follow the Little«Lamb 
and not the worldly way. 

The torment they inflicted upon the men was like the sting of 
a scorpion. It affected the mind so injuriously as to compare to 
the poison of the scorpion in the body, a most painful and dis- 
tressing effect. Something strange that resulted from this state 
of things, this reign of the scorpion-tailed locusts. " In their days 
men shall seek to die and shall not be able;" not all men, but men 
who were their victims. Their distress leads them to seek death, 
but when in the dark they grapple for her gates of death, they 
open not to their blind rage. 

Things are going pretty bad when men are so greatly pained 
by their own leaders. The Little Lamb, said "my yoke is 
easy, my burden is light." Now, let us hold our place carefully 
on the Cloth. We are in the trumpets, and we are taking the 
view from the heavenly point of view, and are seeing deeply 
into things, and are, at this moment, taking an internal view 
of the reigning power in the world. That is, we have a new 
power in sight; a new enemy on the ground, and of a nature 
that requires caution, because he is simulating the day of pente- 
cost and carrying on a parody of things near and dear to the heart 
of our exiled seer. And the picture here pertains to the work- 
ing of his locust servants, who own them and their work. 

Here is a condition of things in which his own subjects try to 
escape their life's burdens, and by some means are hindered. The 
locusts have enslaved them that they may devour them. Now, 
what can hinder a man from ending his own life, if he desires to 
do so? 

The answer his belief that suicide would send his soul into 
a burning endless hell to suffer forever and ever, as against a few 
more years of suffering here, and then to be buried in consecrated 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. Si 

ground, "holy earth. " Well, whoever believed such a doctrine? 
All who accepted the gospel of the locusts. Where did they get 
it? From the pit over which the fallen angel claimed to have 
power. It was one of the rules he gave them, and enabled his 
apostles to practice their profession upon it, as sure to yield a 
revenue for their lion teeth to devour. But did this ever occur? 
Yes, it is a law of the locust kingdom till this day. Well, does this 
mean to say we are actually now living in that day here described? 
We have only to raise our eyes to see it. The Cloth has reached 
a time we can see and do know. We can call its name. "The 
shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for war." 
The shape, being like a horse, adds the horse symbol of war, and 
"he is prepared for war." They have a military commission and 
are prepared to enforce their claims, and so to go out, wearing 
" crowns like gold." This "like gold" is that inferior looking 
metal we found close to the gold thread, but the thread did not 
touch it. This is another sham, another step in the great par- 
ody. These creatures are pretending to religion. They "had 
faces as the faces of men, but their hair was as the hair of women." 

That is, a woman is distinguished more by her hair, where 
men and women dress in flowing garments, as in the Orient. 
What a strange anomalous sight to seem to be, both masculine 
and feminine! There is no middle ground, and there is no way 
of being on both sides of that question; but these locusts assume 
the appearance of standing on neutral ground. For what pur- 
pose? This is known to be a religious doctrine of the locust 
kingdom, that those who serve him in the "holy office" of devour- 
ing, and mingle in furnace smoke shall not defile themselves with 
marriage, and its origin can be clearly traced back to that dark 
spot on the Cloth, where it originated, the dark ages. 

Well, do locusts get married? No, but we are reading in the 
altisonant characters of symbolism, and we are trying to find out 



82 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

about these locusts; and we have found them closing the gates of 
death by a doctrine of purgatory, and by a doctrine of marriage, 
in some way so badly disfigured that we do not know from 
appearance whether they are male or female. But here is another 
disturbing rule that comes from this new kingdom of the pit. We 
notice they were strangely accoutered creatures for missionaries 
and apostles, though their mission is not to save the world, but 
to devour it and to save themselves. "They have teeth like lions," 
and devouring is their strong point; and if there is anything lay- 
ing around that belongs to the Little Lamb, such as a band of 
Salvationists or a little red school house, I would keep one eye on 
them; and have a strong safe for my educational funds also, 
if I were living in their day; and, if I am not dreaming, I am 
living in their last days. 

Being related to war as horses, " they have breastplates of 
iron," "and the sound of their wings is like the sound of war 
chariots rushing to war." Now, we begin to locate upon the 
Cloth the positions of the contestants. These locusts are doing 
work for the world powers that banished our exile and slew the 
Lamb and their breastplates, notice, are of iron. The breastplate 
protects the heart and vital part, and iron signifies the Roman 
power. Daniel told the old king of Babylon that the image, which 
he saw in his dream, illustrated four universal monarchies; three 
of which should follow his own, and the last of these was the 
Roman. The Roman government was described in that image as 
consisting of iron and iron mixed with clay. 

We saw in the second trumpet that pagan Rome on fire went 
down into the sea of the people, and till now we have not seen 
any other power rise out of it, but here are these anomalous and 
mongrel things with breastplates, in military parade representing 
in some way the destroyed iron government and imitating the 
holy pentecost of the apostles. Thus far no other enemy has 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 83 

come to light, for this is an enemy. Maybe this is a sort of 
revival of pagan Rome under a new order. 

Their make-up suggests some strange and awful coming to- 
gether of incompatible and diverse elements. Serpent's tail and 
woman's head, a horse's body with a man's face, vipers wearing 
crowns, a medley of antagonisms that might be expected of a 
great pagan world, coming out of the dark ages pretending to a 
form of religion suggesting a ghastly caricature of the religion 
taught and given by the Little Lamb. Their king is the fallen 
star and the angel of the abyss, and hath his name in Hebrew, 
Abaddon, but in the Greek Appoly on, which means the destroyer! 
Satan the destroyer appearing in a coarse counterfeit of the 
livery of heaven. 

What must the exile of the Agean have thought of such a 
sight? Centuries before this power was developed, his photo- 
graph was taken true as life. Out of decayed paganism arose, as 
from the sea, and from the pit of the abyss, this power so forci- 
bly contrasted with the servants of God. 

Now we must hold carefully on to our bearings on the map, 
this wondrous old Cloth of Gold, for we have moved quite a way 
toward the right from the point of beginning. 

Under what general division are we? It is the first "woe" 
upon the world. The last group of trumpets are three "woes," 
and this is the first. But it would have been "woe" enough for 
a good man to live at such a time; how is this a "woe " upon the 
world? Did not something as bad as all this go on for a long 
while before this time, when, as seen from the facts, it was still 
darker and inferentially, still worse even than this, and if so, how 
can we call this comparatively better state a " woe " upon them 
that dwell upon the earth? 

The answer is found in the view the seer takes of the sub- 
ject of judgments. In the first place the subject matter of the 



84 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

story here related has for its single point the struggle of the 
Little Lamb with the world powers which put him to death and 
in this conflict judgments and woes go on continually and the 
final judgment does not come to view in this treatment. The 
woes and plagues must all be understood with the limit that be- 
longs to this point of view. 

Our seer being the author also of a biography or gospel of 
his hero teaches in that work that judgments are going on con- 
tinuously in this world and that they follow the preaching of the 
gospel, that they result from its preaching, are the negative side 
of it. 

It was the preaching of the gospel now when the morning of 
the Reformation has broken upon the world, these creatures that 
crept about in the dark night of the middle centuries, hideous 
deformities, are brought to view as having lived off the ignor- 
ance of men and " this is their judgment: that light is come into 
the world and men love darkness rather than light" and so suffer 
its consequences now when men and angels can look upon their 
fallen and disgraced position. 

It is this same view of judgments we find in his gospel, the 
brighter shines the light the deeper falls the shadow of woe up- 
on all who love darkness rather than light. This view presents 
strongly the fact that a great change takes place at this turning 
point of the dark ages and the light turned on by the Reform- 
ation that discovers and brings to view a state of things which 
increasing light will more and more prove to be "woes" upon 
the hitherto dark reign. The standard of judgment will be ris- 
ing and divides into classes, and that destroys old distinctions. 

This punishment is not only a declaration and prophesy of 
the greater light, but it shows the evil consequences upon them- 
selves of the worldly who put to death the Little Lamb and 
whose deeds now react upon themselves. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 85 

What a judgment is every true life upon all the deceptions 
o. a merely worldly existence. 

What a judgment on the earth is a true man to all the sneak- 
ing, mousing things that crawl and hunt for the dark and hiss at 
the approaching light. 

With such a present world of opportunity as lies in every 
direction what a "woe" upon any soul that will accept any 
ground lower than the highest on all questions of humanity or 
any less than the whole truth, or will withhold one particle of 
blame and open censure of all the works of darkness and the 
devil that persist in the world. 

We shall find this negative and reverse relation to the light 
to be the judgment of woes which in this world fight, our exile 
calls a "woe." 

The first woe is past, " behold there come two woes here- 
after." The world has wearied itself trying to interpret this Cloth 
of Gold by figuring numbers and dates and seeking for dis- 
tinguished personages and events from history to make a chro- 
nology for us, and have failed to notice how he has " signified 
it." As said in the first verse it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ 
which God gave him and he sent and "signified it." How neatly 
the fifth trumpet lapped back over the sixth seal. How care- 
fully we have proceeded. Our steps have been perfectly regular 
up to this point. 

First, the gospel going out as a white horse, and the red 
horse, persecution following it; and then old pagan Rome going 
down into the sea, and the rise of Mahomedanism in the East 
and then the dark ages followed by the white Reformation whose 
dawning uncovered to view the state of things seen in the 
locust plague and here called the "first woe" upon them that 
dwell on the earth. 



CHAPTER X. 

SIXTH TRUMPET. 
SECOND WOE WORLD POWERS DIVIDED. 

The burden of the sixth trumpet is the " second woe " upon 
the earthly. 

The words: " them that dwell upon the earth " receive en- 
larged and clearer meaning by what we have learned of the 
locusts and their king. No other forces up to this point are 
in view except the locusts and the white pilgrim army which 
they were not able to hurt. But these locusts, while considered 
as a part of the earth, being in it, are also from below it and 
hence a "woe" to them. 

" And the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the 
horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to 
the sixth angel which had the trumpet: i Loose the four angels 
which are bound in the great river Euphrates.' " 

Notice there are two angels engaged about this business of 
the sixth trumpet. After the seven angels of this series were 
given seven trumpets, standing before God, another angel was 
introduced before they began to blow. 

Here is an element that seems to disturb that perfect mechan- 
ical harmony which thus far seemed to prevail and to every- 
where fit part to part. The introduction of another angel into 
the part of the sixth trumpet, is not an accident. There are no 
accidents, no stray pieces, no fugitive parts in the Golden Cloth. 
Before the apostles of the Little Lamb went out to preach, in 
obedience to their great commissions, and before they had re- 

86 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 87 

ceived the holy spirit, they nominated one Matthias to act as one 
of their number to take the place of Judas "who by transgression 
fell," and here at the opening of these trumpets after the trum- 
peters stand up to blow and before they begin, is the appearance 
:>f another angel added as preparatory to the sounding. This is 
a perfectly clear recognition of the election of Matthias as a sec- 
ondary or assistant apostle. 

Now after the apostles had been for some time preaching, an- 
other apostle was added, the last one, who said he was " born out 
of due season," the apostle Paul. Here is its facsimile in the 
Cloth. Here at the sixth of the trumpets, which mean the apostles, 
we have another angel introduced ; but it was after the sixth angel 
has sounded and not before sounding as in the former instance. 
So that one apostle was added to their number before they began 
to sound from Jerusalem, and another was added after they had 
all sounded. "And the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice 
from the horns of the golden altar, which is before God, one say- 
ing to the sixth angel, which had the trumpet, loose the four 
angels, etc." 

We must not say that these two added angels to the trumpets 
are Matthias and Paul respectively for there are no personalities 
in this book apart from the chiefs. But that these two angels do 
represent their apostleships respectively. Not only does one 
precede the regular trumpets and the other follow them in the 
very order of the added apostles, but they are represented as act- 
ing a subordinate part, as servants, or added apostles. As Paul 
was the apostle to the Gentiles, there is a suggestion in this angel 
being connected with the letting loose of the four angels, or as 
will be shown the Gentile world, or the world powers. 

How strange all this to be signified by mere situations on the 
Cloth of Gold. This voice of command to loose the four angels 
comes from the "altar." That is from the altar as it stands re- 



88 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

lated to the story of Revelation, which is the altar that represents 
the souls we saw crying under the altar in the fifth seal, saying, 
"How long, O Master, the holy and true wilt thou not judge and 
avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth?" 

This is the only altar we have yet seen upon the Cloth that 
had a voice and it will be answered. 

We are notified that this is a "woe" upon the world, upon 
them that dwell upon the earth. Here the martyrs come to ligit 
again. They order the sixth trumpeter to loose the four angeis, 
which are bound in the great river Euphrates. Here let us take 
account. of a remarkable fact — we may now add to the precious 
nuggets of golden truth we have gotten from the seer, the almost 
absolute certainty that when we find one such part as the souls 
under the altar we shall find two more pieces to match it and in 
this way we begin to reduce the number of apparently stray frag- 
ments which we thought we saw as an exploded temple when we 
first looked at the Cloth ; and so we constantly reduce the num- 
ber of pieces that must be put part to part. I promise myself 
with perfect confidence we shall hear from the martyrs under the 
altar again before we are done. 

But this is their first appearance since we heard their wailing 
cry from the altar of sacrifice that showed their having laid down 
their lives for the Little Lamb. It was said unto them that they 
should rest yet for a little time, until their fellow servants also 
and their brethren should be killed as they had been, should be 
fulfilled. And the "little time" is now passed and their cry is 
heard for their voice of command to the sixth trumpeter to let go 
number four (the world powers) and so to execute the second 
"woe" upon them that dwell upon the earth, shows they are 
reigning now with the Little Lamb. Now we have come into the 
signature of "four" and that means the world powers. 

We have four angels, and the revisers have probably made 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 89 

another mistake in changing the commonly accepted copy of the 
Cloth by leaving out "four" which mentions "four" horns of the 
altar, that would give us two "fours," and we find another "four" 
couched in the enumeration, "hour, day, month and year." 
This enumeration is of frequent occurrence in the numbers 
"three" and "four" and "seven" and "eight." "Tribes, peoples, 
tongues and nations" is saying the same thing four times and 
carries the same meaning as the number "four." This is true in 
every occurrence and we also have eight words used where one 
would tell the whole story, but would lose to us in expression of 
the signature value of the enumeration. The number "three" 
occurs not only as a numeral with its signature value in local 
connections, but also in expressing the significant relation of 
part to part. 

This is seen in the relation of three as shown in all the series 
of seven, the churches, the seals, trumpets, bowls, etc. 

Here they come into closer relations and draw a sharp line of 
contrast. The four angels prepared in a time, bearing the "four" 
signature, were "to kill a third part of men," shows that number 
four is now doing the will of number three ; that is that the four 
angels loosed from the Euphrates, are executing a woe upon the 
world and so doing the will of God. 

The number "three" is contained three times in the first 
trumpet, in different forms, and in the second trumpet three times 
expressed as a third part, etc., and the third trumpet has it three 
times, and the fourth trumpet has its presence six times, and in 
all it was a woe to the "three" or to the truth and the Little Lamb. 

The fifth trumpet which contains a larger space upon the 
Cloth than all the previous four combined, has "three" occurring 
but once and then in the form of enumeration, as "grass," 
"greenage," and "trees," which were protected, etc. 

But in the sixth trumpet we have three and four occurring in 



90 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH, 

close relations. The four angels are loosed which " were pre- 
pared for the hour, the day, the month and the year" that they 
should kill the "third" of men. Killing the "third" shows this 
to be good news on our side. The killing is also a "woe" upon 
the world. But here are the world powers in the signature of 
"four," and impersonated by four world angels, and they are seen 
in a previous condition of imprisonment. They were "bound." 
They are in bond and allegiance to some power which held them 
as vassals in confinement. That is not a heavenly power : first 
because the world powers, though at some time to be loyal to the 
heavenly, are not so here ; second, because they cannot be loosed 
from heavenly allegiance as a "woe" upon the world. 

That goes on forever, and one of the last scenes we had was 
that of perfect loyalty and perfect protection for those who are 
"sealed in the forehead;" and third, because they are bound in the 
great river Euphrates, that bears the life and gives support to 
Babylon. Now, the fifth trumpet presented a state of the world in 
which devouring locusts had undisputed sway in the earth, except 
they could not either poison the minds of those whom God had 
sealed in their foreheads, nor destroy the bodies of those whom 
they ruled and tormented with military power and kept alive 
only for mercenary purposes. They had a king over them, and 
that was the only world king and the only world power anywhere 
in sight; and it was of a wonderfully mongrel and complex char- 
acter, in which a caricature of religion was united to military and 
civil power. It is from the allegiance to this king that the four 
angels are to be "loosed." Here is the appearance of a separation 
into their own parts of the world-power from this caricature 
religion, to which they were united. The four angels represent a 
fact already grown distinct in our mind, as presenting the world, 
expressed in government. And it is this power that the sixth 
trumpeter is commanded to loose from its allegiance to a city, here 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 91 

called Babylon. That connects Babylon at once with the king of 
the locusts, as being his seat; and the very name of the city adds 
suggestion to the mongrel nature of that empire of the locusts. 
As Babylon here is mystic, the Euphrates is mystic also. That 
is, as ancient Babylon rested upon the great river Euphrates for 
its commerce and power and life; so the world powers that had 
served this new Babylon as the Euphrates had served the old 
one, should now be loosed to fight and war, to kill a third 
part of men and to accomplish the second woe upon them that 
dwell upon the earth. 

This is the separation and breaking away of a new power, in 
addition to the sealed pilgrims; and so we have come to look upon 
three powers in the world. These three forces now correspond in 
nature to heaven, earth and hell. This dissolution of a worldly 
power from the locust power is a "woe." 

The king of the locusts seems to be the person whose king- 
dom has been rent. Euphrates cannot be connected with any 
other city than Babylon, and both are symbolic; and the world 
powers, expressed by Rome and united to religious pretentions, 
cannot escape the application. We have the story of Babylon's 
desolations complete a little later, and there her first woe is at- 
tributed to the withdrawal of the world powers from allegiance to 
her. We now clearly see three forces in the field. We began with 
two: the white horse and the red persecution. Then, for a long 
time, we had but one reigning, undisputed power, a power of 
darkness in all the world. But now we have three powers. Abad- 
don and his locusts, the white army sealed and marching for 
Canaan, and a mighty world-wide army of horsemen, loosed from 
Euphrates, let loose to fight to kill the third part of men. 

It is said these four "angels" had been prepared for "the day, 
the hour, the month and the year that they should kill, etc." 
Wars that are sinful and destructive always, shall not now be a 



9 2 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

"woe" to them that are sealed, etc., as they were before. A new 
condition is set up, and wars shall crush oppression and tyranny, 
and shall break down and conquer the world powers themselves 
as anti-christian, and shall no longer do the will of man as against 
the will of God. The kings and princes who once had to go to 
the locust king for a permission to go to war, are now loosed and 
can no longer be held in the Euphrates of ministering to the 
pride of mystic Babylon. They were prepared for the hour, the 
day, the month and the year, means that the time appointed and 
known to God, had come for a mighty change in the affairs of 
the world. 

Here is the pledge that the long night of ignorance was to be 
broken. He gives us the world signature of "four" words of 
time. That is, an appointed time in the progress of the world 
which God knew, and which had to do with the fulfillment of his 
designs upon this world, long looked for and prayed for by saints 
and martyrs. We saw the return of God's power into the world 
in the supplement to the sixth seal, where the four winds, that 
wanted to strive as Daniel saw them, to bring forth ruling beasts 
from the sea, were held in abeyance to enable the sealing of God's 
servants. That was manifested in the breaking out of the Reforma- 
tion. Here again, under another aspect, God has something to 
say, for the world shall not go on, as it did "from the beginning," 
and choose its own way. The world powers that have been glutted 
and have slept in sin, shall wake and their wars shall result in the 
ascendency of righteousness in the earth. 

Here is the statement on which these remarks rest. 

" And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten 
thousand times ten thousand; I heard the number of them. And 
thus, I saw the horses in vision, and them that sat on them having 
breastplates as of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone. And 
the heads of the horses are as the heads of lions, and out of their 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 93 

mouths proceedeth fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three 
plagues was the third part of men killed, by the fire and the smoke 
and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths. For 
the power of the horses is in their mouth and in their tails; for 
their tails are like unto serpents and have heads, and with them 
they do hurt." Here is a vast preparation for war. Two hundred 
millions of horsemen, held in the Euphrates, held by the four 
angels, as representatives of the governments of the whole world, 
paying tribute to "mystery" Babylon. 

These horses are accoutered in a most suggestive way. 

They must be compared closely with the locust power from 
which they came out. 

In the first statement it is said that this mighty power was 
loose and was prepared " to kill the third part of men." 

This power was withheld from the locusts, for they were not 
allowed to kill their victims, nor were their victims allowed to 
kill themselves. 

But this military power is armed and empowered to kill. 

Thus far the army has a pure military aspect. 

But the seer says "And thus I saw the horses in the vision and 
them that sat on them having breastplates of fire, and of hyacinth, 
and of brimstone." 

That is a strange mixture, the word of God, and blood and 
hades. follow them. Their breastplates tell their real and true 
character. Having the word of God shows a condition of greater 
enlightenment than the simple iron breastplates worn by the 
locusts. The hyacinth, red variety, represents blood, and there- 
fore death, not permitted to the locusts to inflict, and brimstone 
or punishment, which we saw represented as hades following 
after the pale horse. 

Here is our pale horse beginning just where that black area 
in the middle of the Cloth begins to decline and the gray or pale 



94 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

thread starts. "And the heads of the horses are as the heads of 
lions, and out of their mouth proceeded fire, smoke and brim- 
stone." When the first trumpet sounded " there followed hail 
and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth." 
That we said was God's word preached and the judgment which 
its preaching entailed, and persecution that mingled with it. 
Here we have on the breastplate of these warriors fire, blood and 
brimstone, or hades the second death, called the lake of fire and 
brimstone. And from the heads of the horses "fire, smoke and 
brimstone." The smoke seems to belong in symbolic relation to 
the former conditions and shows that the air is not yet clear from 
the smoke of the furnace. As this military drama is to show a 
separation of political and military powers from a mixed previous 
power, the horse is made to dominate the group, and the fire, smoke 
and brimstone that kills the third part of men proceeds from them. 

This army represents a well mixed state of the elements, part 
belonging to the previous condition as that of the locusts and 
part of a more enlightened condition, but no seal of God in the 
forehead or white robes, etc. The breastplates have three and 
the horses also have three signals, and " the third part of men 
were killed;" all this goes to show that this army is in some way 
connected with the execution of the heavenly will. Add to this 
signature that " the fire, smoke and brimstone " are here called 
"three plagues," thus adding another and final evidence of the 
meaning of this new power. Over all these is written a "woe" 
to the world or the wicked. 

Observing how this army differs from the locust army; we 
see that locusts had bodies like horses, while here the horses 
are less mixed with other animal attributes. Having heads like 
lions, is an improvement over teeth like lions, especially when 
united with woman's hair in the same being. This army of 
horsemen makes no appearance of performing religion. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 



95 



Advancement always implies division as much as recession 
into the dark means union, or " as the graveyard means silence/' 
by destroying all distinctions. But while we have three points 
in which progress seems to have been made by this army, we have 
three points by which we closely connect the horsemen with the 
former condition. Their breastplates, their mouths that issue fire, 
smoke and brimstone, and their tails with "which they do hurt." 

But this mighty army spread here upon our Cloth has another 
clue to its purpose, and which shows its connection with the story 
which we now see is a perfect one. Notice that the number of 
the army of horses is given. That connects them in some way 
with the mission and purpose of the white pilgrims, the hundred 
and forty-four thousand described in the supplement to the 
sixth seal as numbered, etc. 

And this not only connects the sixth trumpet with that supple- 
ment and thus unites the two systems at this end, but the num- 
bering clearly indicates that this army and the congregation of 
the Lord have both left Babylon or Egypt or Sodom, symbolic 
equivalents, and are marching for Canaan, but under two clearly 
marked divisions. Those sealed are in white robes and without 
any scars from the locusts' teeth or their stings or marks, and 
they are shouting and singing and waving palms and crying 
" Salvation to our God," and worshiping and falling down before 
the throne and casting their crowns at the foot of it, and are 
being led by the Little Lamb who is now called their shepherd, 
and the Father spreads his tabernacle over them. 

This clearly shows much of the former condition remains, and 
also just as clearly that a long stride has been made in getting 
from under the locust kingdom, but still in the bloody business 
of war. They have the characteristics of the locust age and of 
the pale horse and hold all the military power on earth, which is 
at this moment of writing not far from two hundred million 



96 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

fighting force. That leaves the locust kingdom without military 
power. The iron breastplates of the locusts are gone. These 
four angels let loose embrace the total of military, and therefore 
of political power, and we may expect to see the locusts bereft of 
it, and without means of enforcing their laws which, if the light 
continues to increase, will drive their kingdom to its own orig- 
inal place. 

This army of horsemen is not numbered nor sealed, etc., as 
the white army was, thus showing God's favor, etc., but the seer 
simply says " I heard the number of them. ,, 

But this number being given and the fact of " fire " being 
mingled in their breastplates and that they broke away from 
mystery Babylon, all go to show as well as the signature of three 
that they are in some manner associated with the progress and 
welfare of the white sealed army as well as a woe upon the 
world. 

They have also left the Egypt of the dark ages and are mov- 
ing outward toward that white area at the further end of the 
Golden Cloth. The locust power left behind and bereft of mili- 
tary power, its Euphrates drained off, it will become a horrid 
looking place in time, described hereafter. With their world 
power all taken away from them there is nothing left but the pit 
of the abyss, and as they, may feel more at home there they may 
emigrate. 

As these two armies are numbered for a forward march, not 
only the neuter gender locusts who were left behind, will be ob- 
jects of interest, but how these two new armies, or the army of 
horsemen, and the white camp, which is the exact image here 
upon the Cloth, will get along together. One of them bloody 
and a little serpent-like in the tail and fierce looking, the other 
white and happy and unarmed, except with harps, etc., and with 
their tent given by Him who promised to tabernacle them during 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 97 

the journey toward the promised land. The outcome of all this 
we may yet have an opportunity of looking into. It is a sur- 
prise that the sixth seal and the sixth trumpet overlap each 
other and give us two views and complement each other, one giv- 
ing us the Reformation as a religious movement pitching tent 
for that glorious land visioned in the first scene of the book, 
the land of the " Little Lamb," and of the white armies' direc- 
tion, and the sixth trumpet that shows us the world powers let go 
to fight and to destroy the rule of man, as if to clear the way. 
The seals are now seen to have begun in the personal ministry 
of the Christ and to have ended with the Reformation, or prot- 
estantism, while the trumpets began with the apostles' ministry 
and end with the independence of protestant governments. This 
seems to me too much like a reverie. But it is not. It is the 
true and faithful interpretation of the Cloth of Gold as we are 
enabled to see it. The supplement to the sixth seal, and the fifth 
and sixth trumpets give us three solid points of view from which 
to see the relations and characteristics of the Reformation times. 
These things are not dreams. They are solid familiar history. 
They are not imported. We find them lying here in the meshes 
of this old Cloth of Gold. 

Now this fighting army, which is numbered, is distinctly de- 
clared in the symbol of " four," and second, they broke away 
from Babylon, and third, they made war. All this is saying 
plainly that they represent the governments of the world, and as 
they have no mention of iron in any way we miss this Roman 
signature we had in the locust kingdom. But what of the fight, 
what were they fighting if not this white army of saints? They 
were fighting over questions of oppression and of tyranny of man 
over man, and as the fighting has progressed, oppression has re- 
laxed and light and liberty have grown and spread abroad, and 
brute force is losing its prestige and government itself is giving 
7 



98 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

away to a kind of democratic commune, law being indifferently 
enforced, and a great change of the world impending. 

The purest Christian and reformer and the most brutal cor- 
rupter are equally tolerated. The conservative old power of 
King Abaddon and his capitol, Babylon, what of them? Like 
all conservatives since the dark ages broke away, they grew worse 
and worse. Here in the close of the chapters we get their condi- 
tions stated. "And the rest of mankind, which were not killed 
by these plagues repented not of the works of their hands 
that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and of 
silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither 
see, nor hear, nor walk." This part of the description of "the 
rest of mankind " shows them to be very religious in their way. 
The work of their own hands was the object of their worship, 
and it was as high as they could get, and their gods were below 
themselves for they could see and hear and walk and their gods 
could do neither. " And they repented not of their murders nor 
of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts." 

This description includes them both; both locusts and world- 
lings in general. It gives distinctly the world sign of " four," 
"murderers, sorcerers, fornicators, thieves." This, again, shows 
a kind of religious worldliness. Reviewing the facts on which 
the symbolism of the military power is built, we meet the won- 
drous spectacle of the seer in Patmos seeing more than twelve 
hundred years before it came to pass, or ever had been dreamed 
of by man, that the nations should fight with gunpowder " fire, 
smoke and brimstone " is a description of burnt powder, issuing 
as from the horses' mouths. He says: "I saw this in vision." 
But how surpassing all wonder that he should both see these 
changed military aspects of the world, and use the facts in sym- 
bolic expression, so as to both see the new conditions of warfare 
and to know what they import as to its bearings in the world's 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 99 

transformation, etc. All this I find myself now considering in 
sober reality and feel like my old friend is making his way toward 
my own age with absolute certainty, and thus bringing me each 
moment nearer to the times which to tell the honest truth, I have 
in my heart rejected as an age of decay, and if he should land 
me into this day as the middle of the millennium I shall have to 
conclude the trouble is all in myself. But we have succeeded in 
understanding his division of the elements and will move a little 
to the right where there is raised one of the most striking dram- 
atic figures wrought upon the Cloth, and where another mighty 
change occurs belonging to this same period, the sixth trumpet, 
which is at this hour sounding. 



CHAPTER XL 

COMING OF THE LORD. 

We now approach that interesting group to the right, being 
still in the time of the sixth trumpet, and looking toward the 
seventh and last. We have not yet reached the third and greatest 
"woe" which lies a little further on the map. 

The question of time which has been so often in the mind 
while looking at these wondrous age-telling series of great facts, 
has come again for an answer. Is there not some kind of chro- 
nology the finding of which in this Cloth of Gold would tell us 
of the end? Yes. There is here on the face of this Cloth of 
Gold an old clock, the hands of which we have been looking at 
and did not know what they were. It is so inwrought with the 
pictures of animals and other objects that we could not recognize 
the design looking a little like the picture of the Zodiac. It is 
not modern and so has no minute or second-keeping hand. 
From the space it occupies I should not think it would strike 
oftener than once in a century. There are twelve spaces marked 
for hours. At the three o'clock mark is a white horse, at the 
six mark is a black horse, and at nine is a pale horse, and at 
twelve is an angel in striking attire, lifting his right hand toward 
heaven and holding in the other hand an open book. 

The other hour marks are filled in with trumpets. If I read 
it correctly the one single hand upon its great face now points 
in the space beyond the grey horse, moving toward the great 
angel at the top. We are at the tenth chapter. 

This is noticeable for a greater extent of dramatic positions 

ioo 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 101 

and expressions than any part of the Golden Cloth yet surveyed. 
A strong angel appears, coming down out of heaven, arrayed 
with a cloud, and the "rainbow is upon his head." It was a cloud 
that received the Little Lamb at his ascension and bore him 
above the heads of his followers and from their sight, and he dis- 
appeared. And the story about it tells that two angels appeared 
to them and said, that "he should come again in like manner as 
they had seen him go up." Here is the exact picture of that 
promise. He has the rainbow on his head which we saw about 
the throne in the first scene and which means promises fulfilled, 
the trouble all over and the floods subsided, etc. "And his face 
was as the sun and his feet as pillars of fire." That is, the greatest 
intelligence in his face, and his feet were walking in the light of 
God's word, to do his will and to fill up his promises. 

"And he has in his hand a little book open." That clearly 
connects this book with the throne that first held it. The last 
time we saw him, he was impersonated as a Little Lamb slain, 
and that was the ground of his worthiness. He had been found 
able to take the book from the hand of him that sat upon the 
throne and to open the seals. And this is his first appearance 
since that time. The apostles who represented him in the world, 
and who are the trumpets, have all sounded, but one; and his is a 
sabbath trumpet, only calling to rest. So here the Little Lamb 
returns, bearing the rainbow of the throne and wrapped in his 
ascension cloud, holds in his hand the book he has never let go, 
and now it is open, and the secrets of it are divulged. No other 
in heaven nor earth, nor Under the earth, could take that book, 
but he alone. His impersonation here as an angel is in keeping 
with all his symbolic appearances, as we see them in his letters to 
the churches, where he simply says: "I am he that walketh among 
the seven candlesticks;" or "I am he that hath the sharp, two- 
edged sword;" or, "he that was dead and am alive again," etc., 



102 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

etc. Now, he has returned, "even as ye saw him going up into 
heaven;" and "He set his right foot upon the sea and his left upon 
the earth and cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth, and 
when he cried the seven thunders uttered their voices." 

This is the first picture of universality we have met since the 
four horses went out. Here is an all embracing attitude: one 
foot upon the sea and the other upon the earth and the right 
hand raised to heaven, unites earth and sea and heaven in the 
mission so signified. Hitherto we have been following the line 
of battle, which lay westward with but one reference to the 
East, the "fountains of waters." But now the earth and sea are 
embraced in the angel's attitude, and heaven is pledged to the 
fulfillment of some all comprehensive promise by him whose feet, 
as gleaming pillars of fire, shine out over the sea and the earth. 
He cries aloud with the loudest cry of earth, "like a lion," and 
the echo of his voice rolls in seven thunders through the heavens. 
And our seer! What did he think to see such a drama? And did 
he wish to take a part in it? He had almost completely shaken us 
from himself to be transferred to and engulfed in the wondrous 
exhibitions of his own hero, as he walks down the ages, making 
war upon the world powers. 

He says: "And when the seven thunders uttered their voices, 
I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven, saying: Seal 
up the things which the seven thunders uttered and write them not." 

The Little Lamb had spoken through the seals, and his apostles 
had spoken through the trumpets, and now the Father speaks 
through the seven thunders. What did He say? Ah! That and 
that, only of it all was commanded to be "sealed." Once before 
a voice was heard from heaven, like thunder, and that was when 
the Lamb prayed that he might be glorified, and the answer was 
thundered back: "I have both glorified it and will glorify it 
again." At his descent to earth, clothed with the cloud and bear- 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 103 

ing the rainbow, the Father speaks also in seven thunders and 
owns to the mission which the angel comes to fill. 

What was signified to us in the two witnesses, the seals and 
trumpets, is here confirmed by one voice from on high, but sealed. 
The exile would have written what was spoken by the voice of 
the seven thunders. "I was about to write, but I heard a voice 
from heaven, saying: Seal up the things which the seven thunders 
uttered and write them not." Seal up means to refrain from writ- 
ing or divulging. These thunders follow the cry of the angel. 
He cried with a great voice, as a lion roareth. It does not tell 
us what he said as when the angel cried, asking who is able to 
open the book; for then the cry was heard all over heaven and 
earth and under the earth, but no one could answer. The thunders 
that followed his cry was the cry itself explained, but they are 
echoed or heard as thunders, because they are, now revealed, the 
voice of God. 

While standing on the sea and the earth, this angel "lifted up 
his right hand to heaven and sware by him that liveth for ever and 
ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and 
the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the 
things that are therein, that there shall be time no more." 

Here is an all embracing oath. It embraces heaven and all 
that pertains to it, and the earth and all that pertains to it, and 
the sea in like manner; and it also embraces the same complete- 
ness in time, for it declares time shall be no more, and it is made 
by him that liveth for ever and ever. Thus again by three wit- 
nesses we are told of the comprehensive character of the mission 
to be performed by the sixth trumpet, when the seventh is about 
to sound. The book he now holds open for all to see, is the 
explanation here contained in the Golden Cloth, and to be read 
and understood in the latter part of the sixth trumpet and in an 
advanced stage of the grey horse seen on the old Zodiac clock. 



104 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

The angels' awful oath continues in these words: "But in the 
days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, 
then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings 
which he declared to his servants, the prophets. " 

The closing of the sixth trumpet, that means before the seventh 
shall fall; for that is the sabbath call, a long resting time. All the 
promises will soon be fulfilled. This is declared by (i) the rain- 
bow, and (2) by the closing of trumpet time, and (3) by the oath, 
three times declared and signified. 

The voice that came to the seer from heaven, came to him 
again and said, " Go take the book which is open, in the hand 
of the angel that standeth upon the sea, and upon the 
earth." And I went to the angel and said, " Give me the little 
book." What must have been the feelings of the seer when he 
was bidden to touch that book, to take hold of it and then to eat 
it. He had wept much when no one was found in heaven, or in 
earth, or in the under world who could take it, to open it or to 
look upon it, and now it is held open to all and is in the angel's 
hand and he is to take it in his own hand and to put it to his 
mouth. The fact of its having come from him that sat upon the 
throne and that it had been taken by the Little Lamb, as con- 
taining some great secret, some mystery of God according to the 
prophets, hid from the foundation of the world, must have pro- 
duced a very different feeling in the heart of the old hermit from 
that which he experienced when no one could be found worthy 
to take it and loose the seals. No other had ever yet touched it. 
And he went and asked the angel for the book, and took it 
in his own hand, but did not and could not read it, any 
more than our learned revisers who made it seem that one of 
satan's servants, an "eagle," had slipped the guards and gotten 
over into the Little Lamb's camp and doing good work there 
where no eagle can ever come. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 105 

Thousands upon thousands have taken this old chart, the Gol- 
den Cloth in their hands and looked upon the writing on the 
outside. All can see that, but none have read it, and told us the 
story. Commentators have commented and expositors have ex- 
posited, but if any one has received the blessing promised to him 
that reads it, he has followed the spirit of the age and kept it 
strictly in trust. 

There are seven great and precious blessings promised in this 
old Cloth of Gold, just as there are seven spirits, seven angels, 
seven churches, etc.; and two of the seven are awarded to him 
who shall read the things written herein and these promises are 
not from the exile but are the promises of the Little Lamb him- 
self. That book when first seen by the seer could neither be 
looked upon nor read; now he both looks upon it and has taken 
it in his own hand to eat it. In trying to read it we have been 
caught away at the threshold by some mystery never explored, 
and found ourselves busy the next minute absorbed with our own 
thoughts ; and time after time coming to the same mystic laced 
and curtained entrance to the heavenly mysteries, we were 
snatched away and left again in the revery of things here below 
or in a dream land. Whoever would enter within to see the 
glories must follow him who said, " I am the way, the truth and 
the life," and following him to see the secret, where he dwelleth, 
we must pass through the veil he passed through, the curtain that 
was rent asunder when he was put to death, which curtain was his 
flesh. It is spiritually discerned. 

When we followed the first golden strand of this precious old 
Cloth and saw it pass down through and change color on the 
other side and held patiently on till we saw its end and then 
marked its track, we began to find our way into this treasury of 
heaven's last and mightiest gift. We passed through the veil and 
learned to observe from the transported view. What feelings of 



106 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

rapture when the seer took hold of the book that had awakened 
such universal interest and desire. What are the obstacles now to 
reading it? The prejudice we bring from many failures. The 
failures have resulted in a prohibitory caution being written over 
its entrance to all who would dare to lay hold upon its blessing. 
All who come to it impart into its reading what they have learned 
from other sacred writers whose method is entirely different. 
Some have come to find mysterious texts which they may use to 
make more pleasurable some doctrine that needs a mystic because 
it has no better foundations. 

This most divinely woven Cloth of Gold, work of the Prince 
of the Royal House of God, was surely written for the oncoming 
ages. It cannot be taken up and thrown down as a newspaper, 
nor read in the smoky atmosphere of an age that is passed nearly 
away. A new age is in labor to be born in which the seer will be 
most sought, for the glorious knowledge of God. The light already 
strikes the mountain tops whereto if one will but ascend he may 
find clear sun light, clear air, and a mind as clear and deep as the 
pellucid tarns that rest in its crown and upon whose liquid face 
all the lucid heavens find clear reflection and every star in place 
as distinct as the pebbles that lie in its clear bottom. 

To the theologian, his theology is the veil upon his face when 
he would see to the end of this vision. To the logician, his logic 
is at variance with orientalism as is also all our western edu- 
cation. 

Scholars and philosophers view the outside and from the 
outer manifestations reason toward the center, but the seer sees. 
He sees to the core and speaks from it. He sees the essence and 
symbols it and thus sends the mind by one electric flash direct 
through all the dark superincumbent air to the very source of 
light and of life. The highest and mightiest and last thing the 
human mind can ever reach is its own emancipation. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 107 

It says to itself, I see! I see! Therefore its blindness re- 
maineth. Though the seer was commanded to seal not up the 
book, it is for all till now a sealed book, and though there is a 
curse upon him who would take away from or add any part to the 
book ; yet we have practically discarded, not a part only, but the 
whole book bodily, so it is in no special sense a blessing but 
rather a warning, and to the intruder who would learn it a 
reproach. 

Nearly every one we meet belongs to a society, a party, a busi- 
ness, or to many such that absorb their whole attention, wastes 
their lives running after nothings ; a dead and fruitless chase for 
that which is naught and which perishing, perish with it. 

How few even of Christian and church going people stop to 
think of the true riches which our Almighty Father has hidden in 
reach of all who earnestly seek. There might be a thousand 
Shakespeares now in the land if the mind could but be cleared of 
idols. If it were sincerely to rise above all prejudice, all diseases 
also called idols and just simply and freely seek the truth for its 
own dear self. It is the highest soul of true love to woo the 
truth, and the power of the commonest mind to find it. But 
how can a soul that is owned by and preoccupied with a sect, a 
party, a club, an ism, ever grow beyond these, its own self-im- 
posed limits? 

How can such sit with patience at the feet of our ancient her- 
mit, even for an hour to seek for the true riches, or make a heroic 
exertion to rise into a true life out of a false? 

The truth lover, which is the true lover, is ready to assist in 
any service if he may but company with those who are jour- 
neying to the Canaan which is the goal in this wondrous 
story. He will not organize a split in the company, over any 
of the merely doctrinal questions of the age. 

The seer was told to proceed and take the book: " Go and 



108 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel 
which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. " And I went 
unto the angel and said unto him " give me the little book." 
And he (the angel) said to me "Take it and eat it up; and I 
took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up, and it 
was in my mouth sweet as honey, but when I had eaten it my 
stomach was made bitter." The results were bitter. When he un- 
derstood it and saw the dark clouds that hung over his path, 
lying between his lonely isle and the distant millennium it was 
bitterness, and dark like that which fell upon Abraham in sleep 
after he had been given to see the end of his glorious promise. 

It was sweet to be able to understand, but the facts when un- 
derstood contained bitter news. How different our positions. 
He had to look down into that night of the dark ages, and I am 
on the further border marching out toward the land of promise, 
and the pulpits they build now are looking both ways, but being 
fixtures can not move either way : so we take to the tent and 
move on. 

But the seer says he ate the book. He took bite by bite, 
and being sweet to the taste he retained it long, and so may 
we, old friend. And experience now the opposite effect from 
yours from swallowing it; a sweetness we dreamed not of when 
first we read your promised blessing there on the upper corner 
of the dear old Cloth of Gold. All the knowledge I ever had 
has no value by comparison. 

I followed thee well, and have found entertainment for my 
thought in thy strange fascinations about thy hero the Little 
Lamb. But the lesson of this? Have we it yet? Not the wider 
one, not the great one. 

We saw in the first verse of this book, the very first, that it 
said "the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him," and 
then a little later saw the giving of it dramatized by the Little 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 109 

Lamb as a slain victim for sin, taking the book from his hand, 
etc. Now, that first verse adds that God gave it to him "to show 
unto his servants, and this showing also has now been given in 
drama to the first one, and as the Little Lamb went to him that 
sitteth on the throne and took the book to break the seals, so our 
seer rises from his prostrate place and goes to the angel and takes 
it from his hand, the seals now being broken and the book open; 
he eats it, and thus illustrates in dramatic action how we are to 
receive it, bite by bite; not by looking on it, not with the eyes, 
but eat it, eat it with the soul, bite by bite; to all who do so a 
double blessing, one to the heart that can love back into his face 
and one to the mind that loves the clear waters of life. A cool 
and invigorating draught he will give to all who will be led to 
"the fountains of waters of life.'' 

As it was necessary the Little Lamb should have a Revelation 
at the opening, so it is necessary it should be disclosed to us in 
the last time, the sixth trumpet. Did I ask myself why so? 
Enough to believe that its opening will be the signal for the third 
evangelization of the world, the regeneration, and the last one, 
and now about to be inaugurated and the opening of this treas- 
ury house of the Golden Cloth to be its new and glorious Day of 
Pentecost. 

This Pentecost opens with the return of the Little Lamb. 
But he does not return in the impersonation of a slain lamb. 
His merit in being a voluntary sacrifice was there presented -as 
the ground for his being able to break the seals of his Father's 
love and continued presenee. But now he comes not as a sin 
offering, but without a sin offering, unto salvation. 

He is a revealing angel with an open book in his hand. 

He is a promise-fulfilling angel, wearing a rainbow upon his 
head. 

He is a covenant-bearing angel, who lifts up his right hand 



no MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

to heaven and swears that time shall be no more when the next 
trumpet is about to sound. 

His right foot upon the sea, his left upon the earth, he cries 
with a great voice: Sin offering is ended; the Little Lamb is 
now the angel of the covenant and will enforce righteousness. 

The view presented in the Golden Cloth follows strictly the 
line of contest between the Little Lamb and the world powers 
never leaving the track. All the subject matter of the work takes 
on these limits and receives also their extensions. Topics are 
treated, but they are treated subject to the limits of this view. 
Any doctrine or alien cast of thought applied here at once ob- 
structs the interpretation. 

Holding our attention close upon the exile we found the 
strange but beautiful method of passing through the Cloth. We 
saw him in his own transportation being caught away, and now 
again he changes as if on earth and goes to the angel and takes 
and eats the book and supposes that all is over, the vision closed 
and the revelation ended. 

To us this signifies that the opening of this book is not the 
end, but a new beginning of the end. 

And they say unto me: " You must prophesy again over 
many peoples and tongues and tribes and nations." 

The situation seemed to our exile that the vision was ended, 
the seals were all opened and the trumpets all sounded, but one 
which would, when sounded, announce the close and call all the 
workers to the sabbath rest. 

All that follows to the end of the cloth is in the nature of 
supplements. 



CHAPTER XII. 
QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 

We are about to see another of those great questions answered 
which seem to be implied in the answers themselves. The first 
one was: "What of our beloved Lord who said ' Lo, I am with 
you always even to the end of the world ?' We see him not. 
Where is he?" The answer, how startling. 

There he is, " one like to the son of man clothed with a garment 
down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle, 
and his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow, 
and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto burn- 
ished brass, as if they had been refined in a furnace, and his voice 
like the voice of many waters." There he is walking amid the 
seven candlesticks and holding the seven stars in his right hand, 
and when I saw him I fell as dead at his feet, and he laid his 
right hand upon me saying Fear not ... I was dead and 
behold I am alive forever more." 

The second was "what of our beloved dead?" and the fifth 
seal shows us their souls under the altar and afterward the answer 
comes up again and again, they being always in white linen under 
the altar, before the throne, or standing with the Little Lamb on 
Mount Zion, or riding with him on white horses to the field of 
Harmageddon or with him at the marriage supper of the Lamb. 

The third question implied is: "What of that book he 
took from the hand of him that sitteth upon the throne to break 
its seals?" The tenth chapter comes to show us the book open 
and understood, and fulfilled and proclaimed to the ends of the 



H2 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

earth in a mighty voice. "The mystery of God according to the 
good tidings which he declared to his servants, ,, the prophets fin- 
ished, fulfilled. 

The interesting question now before us is: "What of the 
fortunes of the Bible during these dark ages? What was it doing 
when the sun went out and total darkness reigned?" Our exile 
begins to bear a part now in the proceedings of the sacred drama, 
and is more than a mere observer. 

HISTORY OF THE BIBLE. 

From the time he fell prostrated at the feet of the Lamb who 
appeared so glorious he had not moved till he arose to take the 
little book and to eat it, and now there is given unto him "areed 
like unto a rod and one said rise and measure the temple of God 
and the altar and them that worship therein." This is some 
heavenly undertaking for it comes in the number three, the 
temple, the altar and the people. It requires measuring to be 
done, implying sizes and proportions, necessary to building, and 
reminds us of the numbering of the sealed multitude. He 
does not say whether he did any measuring, the taking of the 
rod seeming to imply it. "The temple;" not the Jewish, but 
the Christian, temple, the church. 

What could the church have been doing that the age was so 
dark, the sun gone out, the moon faded, the stars fallen down 
and the pit of the abyss holding pentecost on earth? 

Is the Seer commanded to build another church? The meas- 
ure implies it clearly. Would that make two churches? No. 
there was no church. The nations had trodden it under foot "and 
the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months " 
(symbolic time.)* 

♦See time element in appendix. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH, 113 

It is with a view to rebuilding the temple here called the 
"holy city" trodden down, that the reed is given to the exile, 
with the command " to rise and measure." He is enjoined to 
reject the outer court or outside the temple, from measurement 
because it belongs to the gentiles or nations who tread down and 
have destroyed the holy city, the temple, which is the church. 

Now in this case the temple, the church called the " holy 
city" long trodden down by the nations, is to be rebuilt, as Jeru- 
salem was on the return from Babylonian captivity, and not only 
the temple is to be measured and the altar, but also the worship- 
pers; and this measuring of the worshippers is to distinguish 
them from them without, very much as the sealing in the fore- 
head did to distinguish them from the locusts, and also from the 
military army with half of the locust characteristics still adhering 
to them. So we have a measured temple and altar, and wor- 
shippers begun, and on the other side, the nations, who have 
trodden the "holy city "under foot, are refused the measuring. 

This court was "without" and was known as the outer court 
or court of the Gentiles, they being permitted to enter it. It 
means here the world outside the church. 

This looks very like the distinction drawn in the supplement 
to the Sixth Seal, where some were chosen by sealing, and others 
not chosen were not sealed, etc. It is the same thought exactly 
only the figure is changed, and now, instead of numbering as if 
entering upon an exodus, they are rebuilding the temple as if re- 
turned from Babylon. It also distinguishes the saints from the 
military power of the horsemen who possess the mixed char- 
acteristics of the locusts and of a better civilization, etc. 

While these horsemen have their number called out, so the 
Seer can say: " I heard the number of them;" it was not a proper 
numbering; as if God were sealing or measuring or in any other 
manner caring for them, but to show that it represented the w T hole 



H4 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH 

world. But they are incidentally connected with the white army 
already noted. 

In the white army, sealed and numbered, we did not see any 
temple but a tabernacle, because the Reformation is there viewed 
as an exodus from the Egypt of the dark ages and as marching 
toward the millennium. 

In that view God said "I will spread my tabernacle over 
them." But in this present reference the Reformation is viewed 
in its relations to Babylon, all the facts concerning which are 
evolved from the trumpets and not from the seals. Therefore 
they are here presented as having returned from Babylon and 
now rebuilding the temple, our Seer, like Ezra, being commanded 
to measure again for the temple or church long trodden under 
foot by the nations. 

We now have four points from which to view the locust period 
and the two powers that came out of it, giving different aspects 
of the situations by facts of the highest importance. 

In the order of presentation we had first the exodus, second, we 
had the fourth trumpet view of the reign of darkness and its results 
— the locusts; third, we have the army of horsemen or protestant 
governments loosing; fourth, now we have the condition of the 
church and the Bible — the two witnesses coming out of that age. 
The church had been trodden under foot forty-two months by the 
nations and is now to be rebuilt. These points of view afford a large 
data for estimating the conditions of the movements involved. 
The sealing in the forehead, etc., and the measuring and rebuild- 
ing the temple, etc., are of the same class of facts, while the 
separation of the world powers from the Babylonian allegiance 
presents an interesting situation for study. This brief reference 
to the temple is a proper preface to the history of the Bible 
given and here treated topically. 

The Reformation is closely connected with all that concerns 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 115 

these points. The temple as viewed here does not make any 
difference between the locust power and the horsemen power, 
but excludes them all as being without the temple and not to be 
measured, which may suggest a point of view in the history 
earlier than the secession of the latter. 

The fortunes of the Bible or history of the word of God are 
here treated as "two," two witnesses, two prophets, etc. In the 
early part of the book the churches were the light-givers in the 
world, and they came altogether in the number seven. Seven can- 
dlesticks, seven lamps before the throne, seven spirits, seven eyes 
and seven horns, etc., all meaning and expressing the same 
thing in different phases. But now we have a change of sym- 
bols, and the light-givers are expressed as in two; that is, the two 
Testaments, the Old and the New. They were not known as 
such when the exile was yet in Patmos, but came to be known 
as such much later. It was to be expected that, since the sanc- 
tuary of the Jews' temple had a lamp with seven burners, and the 
Christian churches, conforming to that pattern, had been pre- 
sented to us in seven, etc., that seven should in some way be con- 
nected with these light-givers, the words of God, when they 
should be used to take their place. Well, we do in fact have just 
that number here, lying under the surface and subordinate now 
to the number two. That is, we have the "two" occurring seven 
times — seven pairs of two or doubles: (1) A reed like to a rod; 
(2) my two witnesses; (3) the two olive trees quoted from Zech- 
ariah; (4) the two candlesticks from the same, both of which, 
when treated of in this book, are expressed in seven; and (5) the 
"anointed ones" as explained to Zechariah; and (6) the two 
prophets; and (7) the two tables of stone. 

These are all included and embodied in this description on 
the Cloth, making seven pairs of "twos," and also naming candle- 
sticks and olive trees, which are equivalent to "seven," when re- 



n6 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

ferred to in this book. Not only so, but the Apostles, who were 
fourteen in all, are expressed and contained in the " two wit- 
nesses " and the "two prophets,'* which these testaments are here 
called. 

What an ingenious description, and how full ! The Church 
of the Apostles was an oral church, resting upon an oral gospel, 
and the New Testament writings, if they had been gathered and 
published, could have comparatively but little interest while the 
living voice of the Apostles and witnesses were present to speak. 

These two testaments, here called "two prophets," "two can- 
dlesticks," "two olive trees," "two witnesses," etc., are also the 
reed like unto a rod for measuring the temple or the Reformation. 
This shows that the temple or church was evolved from the Bible. 
Thus, while the Bible came out of the first church, the second 
church, the Reformation, came out of the Bible. So that our 
former use of seven to express God's light-givers to the world, 
we now have "two," and seven acts a subordinate place, but is 
here present to verify and to preserve the identity, and this 
order of symbolic expression is kept up till the temple is built 
and the ark of the covenant placed in the temple safely in its 
place, and the exile closes the story by telling us he saw the tem- 
ple, the church open and the ark of the covenant, the two testa- 
ments, were there in view. These two witnesses, representing 
the Old and the New Testament, facts used to symbolically ex- 
press their fortunes, are also drawn from both testaments. 

We are about to enter this description, in which we find what 
seems the most wonderful exhibition of art as applied to litera- 
ture anywhere to be found on earth. 

The striking difference between our princely Seer as an 
author and all others has been illustrated by a comparison of him 
with the ablest of the sacred writers of the New Testament, Paul. 

The latter is analytic while our Seer is synthetic in treatment. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 117 

The former, like the great thinkers who have followed him, reasons 
from the outside toward the inside; but our Seer strikes at once 
and direct to the heart of things and to the center and into the 
very essence. Paul teaches, for instance, that the olive branches 
"were broken off that we might be grafted in," but our Seer says 
"he is the vine and we are the branches and of the vine." 

Paul says "we are adopted into the family of God," but our 
Seer says "we are born into it." Paul would reason that the 
Lamb is a priest after the order of Melchesedic, but our Seer 
sees — sees him in his priestly garments girdled and walking in 
the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, holding the seven 
stars in his right hand, and so flashes into our very soul his royal 
priestliness till we can see the golden pomegranates that border his 
garments, and hear the very tinkling of the golden bells that 
fringe his robe as he trims his lamps and rings out the jubilee to 
come and lifts aloft the seven stars as toward their native heaven. 

In the vast perspective into which the Seer has led us, where 
oriental magnificence is laid under contribution to adorn and to 
deepen, we gaze till the very essence of things unseen penetrates 
the deepest fibers of the soul; there, lying reposed in their essen- 
tial natures and relations, we learn to see them by long, patient 
looking. How different they all look now from those we follow 
through the sinuous ways from the outside, where all is dispro- 
portion and at the end of which truth itself is warped so we can- 
not see its intrinsic, its great relations. 

Hence arises the obstacle to searching patiently among these 
woven threads of gold for the door that opens into its heaven. 
Not simply does he use the flashlight of the symbol once, but he 
will symbolize a symbol itself, and even again, and a third time 
that the light flashed shall be as light thrice purified, then shot 
into the heart till it reach its deepest recess, the holy of holies. 

These remarks apply in part to the variety of symbols in which 



Ii8 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

he here gives us the history of the fortunes that awaited the word 
of God in the world. "And I will give unto my two witnesses 
and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three-score 
days, clothed in sackcloth." The two witnesses are here first 
viewed from the heavenly point and are seen as in mourning, 
covered with sackcloth, but are not really dead. The doubling 
of vision now is clear. The militant and the triumphant views 
are both given. There were many witnesses spoken of in the 
sacred writings, but here they are comprehended in two and, seen 
from on high, are called "my two witnesses." They are, to the 
eye of prophecy, covered with "sackcloth" — covered and obscured. 
They were locked up and hidden from the people, and wore the 
garment of a dead language during the time shown by that black 
area we saw on the Cloth of Gold. These are the two olive trees 
and the two candlesticks standing before the "Lord of the earth," 
and so are distinguished from all other witnesses. 

"The two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before 
the Lord of the earth." This is quoted from Zechariah, where the 
vision is interpreted by the angel. The golden bowl with its seven 
burners has two olive trees, standing one upon the right and the 
other upon the left side of it, connected by two golden pipes, 
and through them supplying it with oil. The seven lights are 
said to be "the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through 
the whole earth." This fact is exactly expressed where the Little 
Lamb is said to have "seven eyes and seven horns, which are" the 
seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." That is the 
seven churches. The seven churches rest upon the word of God 
and are the reflection of it, and are the mystic equivalent of it in 
symbolic usage. 

"And if any man desire to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of 
their mouth and devoureth their enemies." Their enemies are 
those who seek to hurt them. "In this manner must he be killed." 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 119 

This is not bodily killing. The life these witnesses can give is 
the life they can take or withhold, and that is their kind of killing. 
"These have the power to shut up the heaven that it rain not in 
the day of their prophecy, and they have power over waters 
to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with every plague 
as often as they shall desire." To shut up the heaven is what 
Elijah did, and it rained not till his return from three years and 
a half of absence. So when these witnesses are in exile, by being 
in sackcloth, a dead language, and forbidden to be read by the 
the people, there will be a great dearth of the word of God and 
the knowledge of God in the world. Their "power over waters 
to turn them to blood" is taken from Moses who, in sending 
plagues upon Egypt, turned their waters into blood. These two 
witnesses do the same in the dark ages by their absence. Their 
judgment, as already explained, is negative and results from their 
absence, which, beside famine, leaves darkness and savagery; and 
so "they smite the earth by every plague," for, without the light of 
God, there is "every plague." This is the dark time when they 
were making merchandise of the word of God, and the black 
thread on the Cloth leads right to it. The condition of the 
world, while these witnesses were "in sackcloth," throws a side 
light upon the great apostacy and darkness, which we saw pic- 
tured in the fourth trumpet, when all the lights of heaven went 
out, so that, for a part of the time, total darkness reigned on 
earth. 

That condition also clearly implies that the world powers, 
which were loosed from Babylon, must have possessed some of 
the characteristics of the age, which corresponds with the symbols 
they wore. They came out of a condition of society only partly 
leavened with the word of God, and, in building the temple, were 
not allowed to be measured, or otherwise claimed as belonging 
to God. "And when they shall have finished their testimony," 



120 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH 

that is, when they are in sackcloth, "the beast that cometh up out 
of the abyss shall make war with them and overcome them and 
kill them." 

Notice we have changed here from the higher to the lower 
view. We are now viewing the same fact from the world point. 
We have gone through to the other side of the Cloth and view 
the witnesses as they appear in this earth. This double view is 
founded on the double dream, or dualism, already explained. 
This double view stands as upper and lower, as triumphant and 
militant, as heavenly and earthly, and as ideal and actual. Seen 
from on high, these witnesses are not dead but only "in sack- 
cloth;" but as seen by men, they are dead. This world supposed it 
had killed the Little Lamb, but it had not. It supposed it had 
killed the martyrs, but they lived on more happy. It supposed 
it had exiled our hermit prince, but it had only driven him 
again into the bosom of his Lord and Savior to receive from him 
and to signify to the world these great foreviews of the oncoming 
history of the world's great drama in conflict with the Little 
Lamb. "When the beast from the pit shall have made war with 
them and overcome them and killed them, their dead bodies shall 
lie in the street," etc. He killed them by refusing to let them 
speak. He pretended that the language, in which he found them, 
was sacred, and that it would be profane to translate them into 
the living spoken languages; and so, while to this world they were 
dead, having no voice, they were only in mourning, waiting their 
revival. Suppressing God's truth or hiding it or perverting it, is 
killing it. But, like its author, it will not remain dead. 

The beast is mentioned as though we were already acquainted 
with him. He is the beast that came up out of the abyss. There 
is where he brought his locusts from, and they were said to have 
a king over them, whose name in the Hebrew is Abaddon, and in 
Greek Appolyon, both meaning destroyer, and here he is seen in the 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 121 

act of killing the word of God, the two witnesses, and we may find 
it was he who caused the " Holy City to be trodden under foot." 
There never was but one beast that came up out of the abyss. 
" Their dead body lay in the street of the great city which, spir- 
itually, is called Sodom and Egypt, where, also, their Lord was 
crucified. " 

The revisers translate "bodies" for "body" to preserve 
grammatical consistency, but in doing so have sacrificed essential 
consistency. It is "body," singular, the Bible, as of one 
nature, origin, purpose, etc., and so excludes, also, the idea of 
their being personal. The city is called the "great city," 
that is, Babylon, and, spiritually, also, called Sodom and Egypt. 
That is, it was like Sodom and Egypt. Sodom, Egypt 
and Babylon were, first, very bad cities, and, second, were all 
cities of exodus and deportation to the people of God; and, 
third, were all destroyed for their wickedness towards God's peo- 
ple. Thus, they unite to express the character of- the "great 
city," out of which God calls his people to come. It is the capi- 
tol of the beast, and like him, wears four names, the Great City, 
Sodom, Egypt and Babylon. There is but one bad city shown 
upon the Cloth of Gold, and the many names are given it to 
describe its character. It says " their dead bodies lay in the street 
of the great city and they suffered not their dead bodies to be 
laid in the tomb." Not buried in oblivion and destroyed. 
Here is the limit of the world's power upon them. It could kill 
them, but could not entomb them. It thought they were dead, 
and "from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and 
nations do men look upon their dead body three days and a half." 
To say they lay in the street shows that they were carried as 
public trophies of the war which the beast had carried on against 
them, and that they were here exposed for the public to look 
upon, and it shows the little esteem in which they were held and 



122 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

the coarse, brutal treatment they received compared to the treat- 
ment they received from heaven when they were raised up and 
took their place in the temple and were seen safely placed in the 
ark, etc. In much the same way as the beast and his people 
from the " peoples, tribes, tongues and nations " looked upon 
these dead witnesses previous to their revival, have the people of 
the Reformation looked upon this Golden Cloth, which reveals 
these most wondrous things. Our own dear Luther at one time 
threw it out of the Bible and all protestantism in general has practi- 
cally rejected it and taken up a reproach against it that he is a 
dreamer or insane who would assume to interpret it, so that the 
mention of it generally brings a cold look even from the " clergy." 
But as the translation of the Scriptures into the living language was 
the opening of the Reformation, so may the interpretation of the 
Golden Cloth be the beginning of the third evangelization or the 
Regeneration. The same superstitious regard on the part of the 
beast and his followers that preserved the two witnesses from 
destruction (called " being laid in the tomb") has also prevented 
the Golden Cloth from perishing. The beast found, as he 
claimed, his great authority in these two witnesses for his power 
over men, and beyond that he cared for little, and so the Refor- 
mation has found authority in the Cloth of Gold for calling that 
beast the apostasy and anti-Christ, and has cared for little 
beyond that. But this book may hold an account with them 
both. We shall see. 

While these two witnesses remained as dead, it is said: "And 
they that dwell on the earth rejoice over them and make merry, 
and they shall send gifts one to another because these two proph- 
ets tormented them that dwell on earth." As long as they seemed 
to be dead, wrapped like mummies in sackcloth, the worldlings 
gave and received congratulations all around, and both receive 
and give presents and rejoice. But in the midst of their drunken 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 123 

wake a great surprise awaits them, for a change comes, unlooked 
for. "And after three days and a half, symbolic time, the breath 
of life from God entered into them (they were translated) and 
they stood upon their feet." Considering them dead they now 
have a resurrection. "And great fear fell upon them which 
beheld them. ,, More torment awaits them. These two witnesses, 
also called prophets here, " heard a great voice from heaven (the 
heavenly side) saying to them come up hither." And they went 
up into heaven (the temple, the church) in a cloud, "and their 
enemies beheld them." What a reverse is this? What a fright- 
ful mistake it is not to love God and gently submit to his good 
ways so no fear can trouble the heart. The world in which our 
troubles are found is such a little, stifling spot. In the great 
bosom of love is freedom and peace. Killing the Little Lamb 
was a blind business, so was killing the Bible. 

The hour of their ascent was followed by a "great earthquake 
and the tenth part of the city (the great city) fell; and there were 
killed in the earthquake seven thousand names of men." The 
earthquake was the consternation described by the fear of having 
the light of God's word thrown upon what had been going on, 
like the evil spirits that cried out : "Why hast thou come to tor- 
ment us before our time." A tenth part of the city is the symbolic 
use of the word "tenth" which relates to the same meaning that 
underlies ten horns and all the multiples of ten to be noticed 
later. 

Our learned revisers who looked upon the face of our Golden 
Cloth and made some improvements, made some disfigurements 
also. The proper reading is found in the margin. "And there 
were killed in the earthquake names of men seven thousand." 
"Names" here is used symbolically, and our revisionists probably 
saw such a glaring absurdity in taking it literally as to justify a 
"liberal" translation. "Names" here means titles, and titles 



1^4 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

strikes at the artificial and unchristian distinctions which men 
had set up who professed religion, for we must now by this fact 
get another glimpse at the state of society in the time of the 
locusts. The great swelling titles of ecclesiastical magnates got a 
heavy blow when the people began again to read that the Little 
Lamb, the hero of our glorious story, taught that no man should 
be called " father," and that we are all brethren, and that all the 
high mountains must be leveled to the earth and all the valleys 
must be filled to a grade in his kingdom. So when the word of 
God gets hold on a man it makes havoc of all the distinctions 
set up by "them that dwell upon the earth," which imply the 
dominion of man over man. 

"And the rest were affrighted and gave glory to God." It 
does not require us to go any further than to say that they with- 
drew their devotion and homage to the Beast who had killed 
these witnesses; that is some glory to God at least, so that 
worldly people who in any way help to dispel ignorance or to 
destroy degrading superstition or otherwise do good, for while 
they may never choose the better part themselves, they may upon 
a lower plane help this world into far better conditions, and so 
without being saved may help to make it possible to save many, 
and to hasten the reign of the rightful King and Prince of the 
earth. The rising from the dead of the two witnesses and the 
disastrous effect upon the people and the spiritual nobility in 
Babylon closes the scenes that comprise the second woe on the 
worldly. "The second woe is past : behold the third woe cometh 
quickly." "And the seventh angel sounded." The seventh and 
last trumpet is now sounded, followed by another of those musical 
outbursts or oratario of laudations to be noticed later. The 
seventh sounding does not carry us any further nor contain any 
new intelligence, and does not close the actual dramatic time but 
predicts it only, the form and substance being separate. It tells 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 125 

us of the end just as did the first scene contained in the fourth 
chapter. But a very important fact is here added as a part of 
the history of the two witnesses. "And there was opened the 
temple of God that is in heaven, and there was seen in his tem- 
ple the ark of his covenant, and there followed thunders and 
lightnings and an earthquake and great hail." 

This binds together the story of the two witnesses. The holy 
city, the church which had been "trodden under foot" for twelve 
hundred and sixty symbolic days by the sinners or nations, must 
be rebuilt, and so our exile was given a measure and told to 
measure for the temple; and now the temple here at the close of 
the account is open and the ark of the covenant containing the 
two tables of stone is in its place in the temple. The "ark" here 
is used just as "temple" and all the other symbolic usage in this 
history. It means that the Reformation has come, and the Bible 
is translated and is lying in its place on the pulpit for use. 

It adds "and there followed lightnings and voices and thund- 
ers and an earthquake and great hail." Here is another group of 
those mixed symbols. But we are well guarded against any 
hazardous guessing as to what they mean. In the preface to the 
first trumpet where we saw the angel cast out fire from his golden 
censer into the world, we had as the effect of it "thunders, voices 
and lightnings and an earthquake," but when the first trumpet 
sounds there follows "hail and fire mingled with blood." Now 
here is the second evangelization, the Reformation, and it is 
lightnings, voices, thunders and an earthquake and great hail." 
These clearly mark the different characteristics of the two evan- 
gelizations. 

Note our progress toward climax. In the preface, which 
answers to the preparation or day of pentecost, we had no word 
for "blood" or persecution, but "incense" prayer, "fire" the word, 
"voices," speech, "lightnings," its effects on the heart, "thunders," 



126 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

"God's truth" and "earthquake," agitation. But when the first 
trumpet sounded there followed: "hail and fire mingled with 
blood," while the second, or Reformation pentecost, opens with 
"lightnings, voices and thunders and an earthquake and great 
hail." There is no other power on this earth equal to an in- 
telligent, honest man before an audience with an open bible, and 
who is not owned or cowed by any bishop or sect or rich dives, 
and who has only the glory of God on his heart. So armed, one 
can chase a thousand and two can put ten thousand cowards and 
hypocrites to flight. He is voices, thunders, lightnings and earth- 
quake all. What an audacious liberty does our Seer take in 
pillaging the Bible for the gems that will reflect light upon his 
wondrous story along the ages where the white plume leads. 

The dark ages to him were seen, as famishing Israel and the 
word of God being absent, was the cause of the famine and its 
return like that of Elijah. The famine is also darkness, and the 
rehabilitation of the two witnesses into a living language are like 
the candlesticks that give light to the world. Their power upon 
their enemies is like fire that burns them, and in this manner kills 
them. Their return to life is like the rain that broke the long 
famine and restores peace. Their resurrection frightens them 
that dwell upon the earth and is likened to the resurrection of 
their Lord, and their taking their place in the temple is likened 
to or seen in the imagery of Christ's ascension. 

The great chant that closes the second "woe" and introduces 
the third declares: "The kingdom of the world is become the 
kingdom of our Lord and his Christ." We give thee thanks, 
O Lord, God the Almighty, because thou hast taken thy great 
power and didst reign." 



CHAPTER XII. 
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 

SECOND SUPPLEMENT TO THE TRUMPETS. 

Here upon the Golden Cloth is to be seen a woman arrayed 
with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a 
crown of twelve stars." The exile says, it was "a great sign seen 
in heaven." What new interest must gather around his vision 
since he has himself been twice called upon to take a part in the 
strange drama. 

His last part was to take a reed, or measure, and measure the 
temple, the altar and the worshippers, and the account of the two 
witnesses closed with his^ seeing the church opened and the two 
Testaments in their place, and the word being spoken with great 
effect. The subject therefore led easily to the subject of the church 
and its fortunes in the world. Decline had set in. The seven 
churches showed that worldliness was gaining the ascendency till 
the church was "trodden under foot of the nations." 

The light we obtained on the church since the apostles' days 
were, the side lights thrown from the history of "two witnesses." 
There we found the "holy city trodden down," and the measuring 
for a new one ordered, and later it was seen completed and the 
two witnesses in their place alive and divested of their sackcloth 
and now cared for, and, being used as a measuring rod to bring 
the temple to its perfect standard. We are now to look at the 
church as a direct topic, presented in the two point views as actual 
and ideal. The ideal, or higher, comes first and occupies the first 
twelve verses to the twelfth chapter. The church being a New 

127 



128 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

Testament institution, the symbolistic treatment is based on New 
Testament history. Viewed from on high, a beautiful woman in 
expectation of an heir, arrayed with the sun, and the moon under 
her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head, and crying 
from desire to be delivered, and, waiting for her child to devour 
it as soon as born, is a great red dragon seen standing before her. 

The woman is the church of Christ seen in its first estate at 
Pentecost and will appear a little later by contrast. The twelve 
apostles are represented in her crown, and she is clothed with the 
sun, God's light to the world, and her feet with the moon. 

The prayers and tears of the early church, to spread the truth, 
are symbolized in her crying for the joy of motherhood. Her 
child, when born, is described as "they which keep the command- 
ments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus. " 

The Dragon, who stood before her, was a monster, seven- 
headed, ten-horned creature and red in color. Here I find the 
red strand that we saw first in the red horse, and followed its 
bloody track to the blowing of the first trumpet where red mixed 
with fire, and then into the sea in which the mountain went down, 
where the waters were reddened; and now it leads us to this red 
dragon and is of the dragon, and it goes on to the red lake of 
fire and brimstone. Herod, the Roman governor, who sought 
the life of the Little Lamb while an infant in Bethlehem, is the 
historic fact on which the symbolism rests, and as Herod in this 
act represented Satan, so the same Roman power that persecuted 
the young church or permitted it (which is the same) is here shown 
as a great red dragon. 

He has seven heads, imitating Christ, and ten horns, imitating 
the law of Moses. The Roman government held the law over 
mankind. It was a human law and was the last of four universal 
empires foretold. Nebuchadnezer was the head of the first uni- 
versal empire of the world, and held the world at the pleasure of 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 129 

his own proud will; and God gave him a dream which he forgot, 
but which Daniel, also having received from God, related and 
interpreted to him that he was the first head of universal world 
rule and that after him should be three other world rules, rep- 
resented by the arms and body and legs of the image, etc., who 
should have world rule, but not by a single person as his had 
been; and that the fourth and last is represented by the legs, feet 
and toes of the image and should be of "iron and iron and clay 
mixed." 

The image he saw was a man whose head was of gold, whose 
arms and chest were silver, whose body and thighs were of brass, 
and whose legs and feet were iron. As this last universal mon- 
archy was the Roman, it had the number ten for its symbolic 
signature, just as three and seven respectively are in the kingdom 
of the Lamb. And these ten are to preserve the symbolical 
unity of the great image that had ten toes at its extremity; 
what appears like coincidence is that God's law should be 
expressed in ten commandments also. Because the worldly ten 
had usurped the heavenly ten, the stone cut out of the mountain 
without hands, that is not of man's device, would crush the ten 
human laws and grind them to powder, and thus end the rule of 
man over man. The Roman power here comes thus to represent 
the world powers; which have usurped the power and place of 
God as a ruler, and to serve Satan, and so the Dragon is hostile 
to the church, and has ten horns, representing the ten as the 
parts of the great universal image. The same parallel of sym- 
bolic use applies to the number "four." According to the king of 
Babylon's dream, there were to be four universal humanly ruled 
empires, already noticed, and the image he saw showed four divis- 
ions and these parts or divisions showed a depreciation or anti- 
climax, which is the reverse of the heavenly order, in four partic- 
ulars, as follows: the head is one; arms and shoulders, two; body 
9 



J 3° MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

and thighs, three; and the legs and feet in four parts, the lowest, 
nearest to the earth and earthy, ending with ten toes. 

And they depreciate and decline in four ways. First, in value; 
the head was gold, most valued; the arms were silver, the body 
brass, the legs iron, and the feet iron mixed with clay. 

2. The gold is very heavy, the silver is lighter by half, brass 
lighter than silver, iron lighter than brass, and at the feet still 
lighter, being mixed with clay. 

3. The head is highest, the arms lower, the body lower than 
the arms, and the legs still lower, and the toes, all leveled and at 
the lowest, lying side by side on the earth. 

4. The head is one; it is an unit. The silver was to be 
divided into two parts and the body into more, and so weakened; 
and the last one was to be in ten; hence the dragon has ten 
horns. But he has seven heads, which gives him a religious 
appearance, and his horns give him a secular appearance. He 
thus seems dual natured, religious and political. These ancient 
facts are here brought into view as illustrating that the world 
powers which have assumed to govern man and set up over him 
human rule as against God's will, are in a struggle with the little 
stone which Nebuchadnezer, the king, in vision saw cut out of 
the mountain without hands, which was to destroy all other gov- 
ernments. This is none other than the Little Lamb, and the 
march He is making down the ages has in view for this world 
to destroy world rule and to set up heavenly rule for the guide 
of men. 

The Dragon represents all world rule and the ruler of this 
world, who instigates it against God the Almighty. This point 
on the Golden Cloth, where the picture of the Dragon is seen, is 
the center or middle, where it has been folded, and it brings us 
into full view of the context, and enables us to see its scope and 
bearings. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 131 

The Dragon sees the church trying to bring forth a heavenly 
offspring, and he seeks to devour it, which otherwise may increase 
and overthrow world rule, and the kingdom of heaven rule over 
all. To show the low origin of the Dragon, he has a tail, and 
with this he " draweth the third part of the stars of heaven and 
casteth them to the earth." The stars are representatives of the 
churches, and judging from the seven letters of the Little Lamb, 
some of its stars or angels were going the wrong way even then. 
Worldly temptations, exerted by the Dragon, were too much for 
them, and so corruption began that went to its lowest in the dark 
ages. 

Thus, with his tail he casts them down from their former 
heavenly to a worldly state. But the son of the beautiful woman 
was to "rule the nations with a rod of iron." That is, rule the 
nations by his own law of righteousness, and put an end to 
usurpations by man of ruling over man. But this is destiny and 
prophesy, not fact as yet. The woman's child was "caught up to 
heaven." The souls of the martyrs were first seen under the 
altar in the fifth seal, and afterward they were seen before the 
throne, then upon Mount Zion, etc. The symbolism follows the 
history of the Little Lamb to the resurrection. 

The young church was destroyed from the earth, and is seen 
here, being caught up into God's favor, to his throne. The lim- 
its - of Dragon power or world power, are clearly shown by 
being restrained to allow of the sealing of God's servants in the 
forehead and numbering them, and then in protecting them from 
the locust destroyers, and then they are measured and are taber- 
nacled, and now they are caught up into God's favor. Satan 
could rule, but not entirely. He could kill the two witnesses, 
but could not bury them; he could crush the martyrs, he could 
drive the young church from the earth but not from heaven. 
These are points we do not forget, and they portend a bright 



I3 2 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

future. Now, since both the woman and her child are the church, 
the woman is said to have fled away. 

The beautiful woman fled into the wilderness, a bad place to 
be, (quite like the witnesses clothed in sackcloth, of no service) 
where she hath a place prepared of God where they may nourish 
her a thousand two hundred and three score days. The time is 
given in the same number that the holy city was trodden under 
foot. They are the same fact. The two expressions are equiva- 
lent in time and they import the same thing; one views the church 
as a woman and the other as the holy city, and both are treated 
later upon the Golden Cloth. 

The temple decays and is trodden under foot and the woman 
leaves the world and is lost from sight, to return again when the 
two witnesses rise from the dead. The break in its continuity is 
thus expressed because that while many of the first church were 
killed and were received into heavenly favor, the church remained 
here locked up and hidden within the two witnesses, who were in 
this world called "dead," but from on high were seen to be only in 
sackcloth. The world could not see it because it could not read 
the witnesses. 

The beautiful woman in pain and the dragon standing to 
receive her offspring is another wondrous scene of symbolic 
power. 

The Little Lamb is in her, the apostles are in her, the Holy 
Spirit and the martyrs are in her, and she in the wilderness lost 
and trodden under foot, but will rise, will return when the meas- 
uring reed is applied; when the witnesses come to life. 

Our Seer saw war in heaven. " Michael and his angels" 
against the "Dragon and his angels," and the latter were cast out 
and found no more place. All this the exile saw. His vision 
seems to leave the world itself for a field large enough to express 
the wonders of this revelation. But we remember that but a 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 133 

minute ago we found ourselves wading in the prosy history of the 
ages, so accurate, so true to unquestioned facts, that I accused 
myself of reading a new outline of the early and middle Christian 
ages and hardly dared say this is all truly and plainly written in 
the Golden Cloth. 

Now we rise again into an altisonance of symbolic splendor 
that makes us feel that there is too much vagueness; too tenuous. 
But not so; we are familiar with it. We saw in the second trumpet 
that a great mountain went down burning into the sea. This 
mountain we pointed out as Pagan Rome, the Rome that slew 
the Little Lamb and his apostles and drove the infant church 
from the earth. Rome then embraced the world powers and rep- 
resented them, but Rome in quenching the church was also un- 
dermined by its truth, and so was cast down from the heavenly 
right to rule which it falsely claimed, and another sort of govern- 
ment arose in its place. 

We have had important data already to judge of the govern- 
ment that arose in its place, the earliest view being the locust 
pest, and the last — the nations loosed from that malign power to 
make war. 

The Dragon as master of the world powers has four appro- 
priated titles which are twice given him — " the great Dragon, 
that old serpent called the Devil and Satan." 

His seat also or city has likewise four names appropriated, 
already named. 

The sinful attempt of man to rule himself led to the rule of 
man over man, and self rule being instigated by Satan, the old 
serpent, all world rule by man's own will is represented as the 
Dragon or Satan, and bears the insignia of "four," there having been 
but four universal world dominions, etc., as already explained. 
So here Satan is called the deceiver of the whole world, and has 
eight names in all, given in this vision, which expresses all evil. 



134 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

A psalm of praise is sung at his downfall and the chant says he 
" was overcome by the word of their testimony concerning the 
blood of the Little Lamb;" "and they loved not their life unto 
death." 

The lower view begins with: " And when the Dragon saw 
he was cast down to the earth he persecuted the woman which 
brought forth the man child. And there were given unto the 
woman the two wings of the great eagle that she might fly into the 
wilderness unto her place, where she is nourished for a time, times 
and a half time from the face of the serpent." 

Being nourished in the wilderness is quite like "I will give 
to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy, clothed in sackcloth, 
etc. Both show that God has a care and a consciousness of 
them not apparent till the time come for their revelation. The 
serpent persecuted the woman by sending out water as a river 
that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. He 
fights with his mouth and his tail. He brings down the stars with 
his tail and tries to eject the woman with his mouth, that is, sends 
his servants to hunt up and persecute the saints. He waxed 
wroth with the woman and went away to make war with her seed 
which keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony 
of Jesus." 

Thus perished the early church so beautiful in its beginning, 
so base in its ending. 

There are three things here that tell us how the church per- 
ished, i. When the serpent cast out water after her, that she 
accepted help from the earth; "the earth helped her." Alas ! 

2. She accepted the two wings of the great eagle; that is the 
Roman rule, whose ensign was the great eagle, and so she ac- 
cepted the world. And 3. She went into the wilderness and 
ceased to be a city set upon a hill, ceased to be a light, ceased 
to exist as the Church of Christ; and hence the darkness and 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 135 

hence also the new or second church of the Reformation. To it 
all hail till we know more; till we see the third. 

To stand in the middle of Cloth and look both ways we see 
well recognized threads coming and going. Partly aware of this 
fact, or suspecting it, I tried at one time, after looking well for a 
beginning at both ends, to start work from the center, and, 
though persistance, led to the method I have now proceeded 
upon, there is an advantage in breaking the cloth at the middle 
in order to see one of its great wonders at its center. It is here 
we find that a great parody, or simulation has been enacted, bear- 
ing in some respects a close resemblance to the great tragedy of 
the ages enacted by the Little Lamb, according to the story of the 
exile, and at some points it is a contra or antagonism of counter- 
parts. This second and counterpart is enacted by another three 
persons we will call the diabolical trinity. We have just passed 
over the contest between Michael, who is an impersonation of the 
Little Lamb, and the Dragon; and this is followed by a full evo- 
lution of the diabolical power till we have the Dragon, the Beast 
and the False Prophet on one side, against the Father and Son 
and Holy Spirit, and these again are supplemented by the beauti- 
ful Bride of the Little Lamb and the Jeweled Mysteries of the Beast, 
and these again are changed into two cities, the New Jerusalem 
and Mystic Babylon. We have already had the latter presented 
as the Great City, and as connected with the imprisonment of the 
two witnesses, and as the seat of the Beast and the Locust King, 
which is but another name for the same character. Notice the 
very singular manner in which these so vitally connected parts 
are scattered over the face of the Cloth of Gold, separated from 
their proper relations as we would present them. Their orderly 
arrangement or their apparent relation to each other is thus 
missing, and so bewildering, but their essential relation is orderly 
and is attached to the series so as to contain the highest possible 



136 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 



power of expression. Not only words and symbolic words and 
phrases, but acts and postures are utilized to deepen and to 
strengthen and to multiply the expression of thought. If I were 
looking for nothing but art, here I should say is its consummation. 
If for literature, all else that pretends to it sinks from all com- 
parison, but seeking a brother I have found rich mines of truth, 
which if we but knew how to use, what a fresh, what a new and 
mighty life might spring up from it. To show at a glance some of 
the more prominent points of the world parody on the divine trag- 
edy we subjoin here what seems almost incredible in this point of 
view, but which presents the vital forces and nature of the con- 
trasts contained in this great world story of the ages. 

THE GREAT PARODY AND CONTRAS. 



1. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit the heav- 

enly trinity. 

2. The Father gave all power and authority to 

the Son. 

3. The Holy Spirit directed and imaged the 

Father and Son to the world. 

4. The Father, Son and Spirit are seven 

spirits sent out into all the earth. 

5. Christ descended and ascended. 

6. Christ was crucified and rose from the dead. 

7. Christ was shut up and sealed in the tomb. 

8. Christ has the key of David and opens his 

kingdoms and the holy spirit is poured 
out. 

9. Christ does the will of the Father. 

10. Christ workes miracles. 

11. Christ continues for ever and ever. 

12. Christ was crucified from the foundation of 

the world. 

13. Christ stands upon Mount Zion with his 

army in white. 

14. Christ counted himself of no reputation and 

humbled himself. 

15. Christ makes war with the sword of his 

mouth. 

16. Christ is a savior of men. 

17. Christ seals his servants and numbers 

them. 

18. Christ seals in the forehead. 



1. The Dragon, the beast and false prophet 

the diabolical trinity. 

2. The Dragon gave all power and authority 

to the beast. 

3. The second beast called ''the false prophet" 

imaged the beast and the Dragon. 

4. The Dragon, beast and false prophet send 

out three unclean spirits into all the 
world. 

5. The Beast ascended from the pit and de- 

scended into the lake of fire. 

6. The Beast had one head crucified and re- 

vived. 

7. The Devil or beast was sealed in the 

abyss. 

8. The Beast as Abaddon has a key to open 

the pit of the abyss and let out smoke as 
from a great furnace. 

9. The Beast does the will of the Dragon. 
10. The Beast wrought wonders and signs, 
n. The Beast continues forty -two months. 

12. The Beast was crucified since time began. 

13. The Dragon stands upon the sand of the 

sea and invokes his successors from land 
and sea. 

14. The Beast exalts himself to heaven and 

speaks great swelling words. 

15. The Dragon makes war with his tail "He 

draweth the stars with," etc. 

16. The Beast is Appollyon the destroyer. 

17. The Beast marks his servants and does not 

number them. 

18. The Beast marks also in the hand. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 137 

19. Christ is in pure white linen. 19. The Beast is spotted. 

20. Christ's feet are as molten brass. 20. The Beast has feet like the bear. 

21. Christ comes in sacred time and conducts 21. The Beast conducts his kingdom in the 

his kingdom in the signature of seven. number six. 

22 Christ has a beautiful bride in white linen. 22. The Beast has a tawdry harlot in jewels 

and scarlet. 

23. Christ's city is the New Jerusalem. 23. The Beast's city is spiritual Babylon. 

24. Christ's mystery is God manifest in the 24. The Beast's mystery is the flesh manifest - 

flesh. ing itself as God. 

25. Christ shall have a millennium of a thou- 25. The Dragon will also be loosed for a little 

sand years. time. 

26. Christ's spirit and bride say come and let 26. The Beast allows no one "to buy or sell 

him that heareth say come and take save he that hath the mark in the hand," 

freely. etc. 

27. Christ's followers are sealed and numbered 27. The Beast followers are not sealed, not 

and measured and recorded and taber- measured, etc., but are bulked or esti- 

nacled and named, etc., etc. mated by furlongs, etc. 

28. Christ's followers shall be with him through 28. The Beast followers "'dwell upon the earth 

eternity in peace and dwell in heaven and shall be cast into the lake of fire where 

through eternity. the Dragon, beast and false prophet are." 

The points of contra and of parody can be carried much further, 
but here are sufficient to show the effect of putting the matter of 
this book so as to see the real and vital relations of the conflict- 
ing powers of heaven and earth. Things apparently estranged 
from each other are thus shown to be most closely related. 



THE GREAT BEAST. 

The history of the church we have just considered involves 
"the great Red Dragon," and brings him into full view. It is 
in order that we now have presented the other two members of 
the trio, the great or spotted beast and the two-horned beast 
also, called " the false prophet." The dragon last seen "stood 
upon the sand of the sea." 

The learned revisers made amends for many shortcomings 
by amending the common version that reads, " and I stood upon 
the sand of the sea," thus putting the good exile in the place 
of Satan's chief apostle. 

It was the Dragon that stood upon the sand of the sea. It 
was there that Pagan Rome went down, and there the new Rome 
must rise. The Dragon invokes his first successor from the sea 
and his second from the earth, both evil sources. Standing upon 



I3 8 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

the shifting sand he is in full opposition to the Little Lamb who 
stands upon Mount Zion with his hundred and forty-four 
thousand clad in white. If I were writing the story, these 
two facts should be in my first sentence, as they present the cen- 
ter of the battle. But it would be too bad to have our Seer 
standing on the sand of the sea, and his hero yonder in white 
standing all glorious on the lovely Mount Zion. Neither he nor 
the saints are ever represented as separate from him. With that 
one mistake this story could never be read in the Cloth of Gold, 
so carefully does it place every fact in its own order. The 
Dragon, cast down by Michael, the mighty angel of Jehovah, 
looks to the sea for his successor. The Seer says, "I saw a beast 
coming up out of the sea having ten horns and seven heads," 
the image of the Dragon. And upon his horns ten diadems, and 
upon his heads names (or titles) of blasphemy. The Dragon 
wore his diadems upon his heads, but the beast's heads are too 
much taken up with names of blasphemy, so he wears them on 
his horns. "The beast which I saw was like unto a leopard;" that 
is spotted and of mixed character. "And his feet w r ere as the 
feet of a bear;" that is, he walked ambling and disorderly, " and 
his mouth as the mouth of a lion," that is, loud; "and the 
Dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority;" 
that is, he made him his successor, including all the debt of sin 
which went with it, as we learn later. He is really a much worse 
looking creature than the Dragon. He has the same wicked 
characteristics and is spotted or double natured beside. The 
names of blasphemy suggest he is a pretender to religion, and he 
is none other than king of the locusts, or Abaddon. "And I 
saw one of his heads as though it had been smitten unto death, 
and his death stroke was healed." These seven heads are the 
different forms of government that succeeded in the Roman em- 
pire during its long existence. They were the kingly, the trium- 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 139 

virate, the imperial, etc. It was the last named of these forms of 
of headship that is here said to have expired. Odoacer is said 
to have abolished the imperial headship, and so it expired, but 
it was revived in the person of Charlemagne, and so is said to 
have come to life again. This illustrates the bungling manner 
in which the powers of evil try to imitate the true religion. It 
would not seem to require much discernment to detect counter- 
feits so gross, and yet we are told that the whole world wondered 
after this beast and gave their glory and honor to it. Our own 
observation shows how numerous and gross are the counterfeits 
of our own time, in the slight admixture of the forms of true 
religion with other elements. Altars which symbolize worship, 
chaplains, the officers of religion, and vague professions of be- 
lief in a deity are all gross simulations of that true religion of 
humility, self-sacrifice, and love that leads the heart to wholly 
and devoutly accept the blood of the sweet, refined and precious 
Little Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world and 
fills the heart with heaven's rich gift of the Holy Spirit, so it will 
follow the Little Lamb whithersoever he goeth and endure with 
him in the tribulations and patience and kingdom with all the 
saints. The redeemed soul delights in particulars and cannot be 
satisfied with generalities especially that do not include the true 
marks of the true religion, self-renunciation, humility, prayer, 
love, sacrifice, praise, steadfastness, discernment, etc. 

"And the whole earth wondered after the beast;" that is, he 
was their great and mighty one. "And they worshipped the 
Dragon because he gave his authority unto the beast;" and they 
worshipped the beast, saying " who is like unto the beast." In re- 
ceiving all authority he took in the whole earth. That prize was 
once offered the true and faithful Little Lamb if he would but do 
honor to the Dragon, but was declined. The beast receives it, 
and them that dwell on the earth worshipped the Dragon for be- 



H° MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

stowing it and worshipped the beast for receiving it — congratula- 
tions all around. 

How very religious they are! How fond of lionizing the ob- 
jects of their favor. They praise two heroes for exactly opposite 
reasons. We saw them a moment or two ago making merry and 
sending gifts to one another when they thought God's two wit- 
nesses, that told them of their sins, were dead. 

These beast worshippers say: " Who is able to make war with 
him?" They had no better mind than to take this beast at his 
own value. " There was given unto him a great mouth, speaking 
great blasphemous things." They took him at his own loud pre- 
tentions and supposed he would continue forever. " But there 
was given him authority to continue forty and two months." 
That is symbolic time. But it is his limit. There is a higher 
power that determines his time, but his worshippers do not see 
any further or higher, or consider that he has any superior, or 
that their hope is vain. 

It was forty and two months the holy city was trodden under 
foot of the nations. The nations that would worship such a beast 
as this would not be above trampling under foot anything holy or 
lovely. These two dates, being the same, show this to be the beast 
that did it; all the other times mentioned in connection with this 
subject agreeing with it. The two witnesses in sackcloth and the 
duration of the woman in the wilderness, etc.* 

All these beasts are of one family in this book. The common 
version, which uses "beasts" for the four creatures about the throne, 
is a vicious translation. All attempts to make Abaddon and the 
Dragon and the beast separate powers leads to confusion. They 
are one. 

"The Beast opened his lion mouth to blaspheme against God's 

* See time element in supplement. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 141 

name and his tabernacle (his church), even them that dwell in the 
heaven. " 

This Beast, though he has so many worshippers, is himself 
very irreligous and irreverent toward God and cruel to his true 
children. In the supplement to the sixth seal we saw the "great 
multitude clothed in white and holding palms in their hands and 
singing salvation," and there it was said that they "came out of 
great tribulation;" and "he that sitteth upon the throne shall spread 
his tabernacle over them." These are said to dwell in heaven, 
because they walk by heavenly light and, marching toward the 
Canaan of heavenly fruition, are covered by God's tabernacle. 
They are accused constantly by the Beast. "It was given unto 
him to make war with the saints." Done by the authority from 
the Dragon and, at the point of view here given, the Beast still 
holds the world powers at his service. The Beast was subject to 
the Dragon and all the world was subject to the Beast, so that the 
world powers, that were loosed and represented as four angels 
bound in the Euphrates, show that it was the Beast kingdom, as a 
mixed, religious and political power, the army of horsemen were 
loosed from. 

These world powers were vassals to the spotted Beast, all 
nations, tribes, tongues and peoples, and they become, when sep- 
arated, a distinct political power, represented as a vast army of 
horsemen. That is, the four angels, when loosed, appeared as the 
whole world let loose to fight and now without the consent of the 
Beast. All that dwelt upon the earth (not the saints) once wor- 
shipped the Beast, but now his kingdom is divided and his time 
is announced as forty-two months. The Little Lamb is from etern- 
ity and "was slain from the foundation of the world" and he 
abides forever. But the Beast is a creature of time and came up- 
out of the sea and has forty-two months only, and "knows his 
time is short;" and that his having one head, bruised to death and 



H 2 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

raised to life, was a sham and a parody; and there is no hope of 
life in him. We now see how it is that this Beast seems to be 
related to so many different places and things. In regard to 
heaven, he is a fallen star; as viewed in his mission on earth, he is 
the angel of the pit of the abyss, and as a servant of the Dragon 
he has a key and unlocks the abyss and lets out the swarm of 
locusts and becomes their king, Abaddon and Appollyon, the 
Destroyer; and that his worshippers are of the locust variety, and 
that he himself puts on religious airs and assumes to take the place 
of the Little Lamb by a mock death, and resurrection in one of his 
seven heads, etc. Now, at the point in the Cloth, following where 
all this appears is another of the great sayings, a text, written 
in plain Greek, which, translated, reads: "If any man hath an ear 
let him hear. If any man is for captivity into captivity he must 
go. If any man shall kill with the sword, with the sword must 
he be killed. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. ,, 

The saints are those who dwell in heaven, and they are well 
imbued with faith in the principle of righteous retribution with 
regard to God's judgments upon the Beast. They confidently 
labor and pray, and expect to see the overthrow of all beast rule, 
of all rule of man over man, and they wait patiently for the time. 

THE EARTH BEAST. 

Here upon the Golden Cloth is another strange appearing 
beast, looking somewhat like the former and may contain an 
additional chapter to what is now to be regarded as history. We 
are here reading the truest history yet written of these ages. Our 
Seer says: "I saw another beast come up out of the earth and he 
had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. " His origin 
speaks bad for his character. Coming out of the earth would 
imply his earthiness, but his having two horns like a lamb, gives 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 143 

him a more innocent look, which is contradicted again by his 
"voice," that is his doctrine; for he spake as a dragon, like his 
grand sire. This new beast of mixed character shows that he was 
likely the product of a period of more enlightened conditions, as 
also that his rising comes later than the first beast. 

"He exercises all the authority of the first Beast in his sight 
and makes the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the 
first Beast whose death stroke was healed." He thus recognizes 
the false pretense of the first Beast and acts "in his sight" with 
eye service as to him, etc. This innocent looking beast is also 
great in authority, but he receives it from the Beast and "ex- 
ercises" it for upholding the credit of the Beast and the Dragon 
who gave it, and thereby Satan also who gave it to the Dragon. 
Here is a kind of "succession," and the only kind found on this 
old Cloth of Gold, for "the holy city was trodden under foot," 
"the holy woman fled into the wilderness from the face of the 
Dragon; and the two witnesses of God were killed by the Beast, 
and the Christian temple, that lay in ruins so long, had to be re- 
measured and rebuilt when the dark ages began to break away, so 
it could not have a worldly succession. This two-horned beast 
did "great signs and deceived them that dwell on the earth" by 
the signs which it was given him to do in the sight of the Beast. 

He did this "in the sight of the beast;" that is, he reflected 
the sentiments of the beast, and was able to deceive the coarse 
crowd of followers who preferred the beast to the Little Lamb. 
One of his wonders was, that he said to "them that dwell on the 
earth," and who were subjects under his authority, that "they 
should make an image to the beast," and they made an image, 
and he was able to give breath to it that it might speak, "and he 
caused that all should worship this image of the beast " on pain 
of being killed. The killing was not literal, as killing the bodv, 
but it was political and commercial killing, as we learn a moment 



T44 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

later. To understand the image he made, we will look at the 
thing imaged or patterned after. It has a double character. It 
has world authority, derived from the Dragon and Satan, and it 
has a religious character, imitating the Little Lamb by a mock 
death, etc. This one being an image, also partakes of both natures. 
It is worldly and opposed to the Little Lamb, but simulates him. 
The "sign " the beast wrought was in being able to impart life to 
the image he ordered made. Then he caused all persons under 
his authority " to receive a mark upon their right hand or upon 
their forehead, in order that they might buy or sell." Here is a 
second institution that possesses the same contradictory natures 
we saw in the beast and in the Dragon. The great wonder, or 
sign, consisted in his creating an image to the beast that would 
speak. " It was given unto to him to give breath to it, even to 
the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both 
speak and cause that as many as should not worship the image of 
the beast should be killed." Notice, first, he was given power to 
impart life to the image which he had commanded to be made, 
and cause it to speak; and, second, he was also able to command 
that all should worship the beast he had patterned after on pain 
of being killed. 

And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and 
the poor, and the free and the bond, that there be given them a 
mark on their right hand or upon their forehead, and that no 
man should be able to buy or to sell save he that hath the mark, 
even the name of the beast or the number of his name." Not to be 
"able to buy or to sell " is here the equivalent of being killed. A 
refusal to receive the trade mark and worship the first beast was, 
therefore, death in this sense. This beast " doeth great signs." 
One of them is already described in the giving of breath to "the 
image" of the first, or spotted beast, which he had ordered to be 
copied for his own realm. The other was that he should cause even 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 145 

fire, God's word, to come down out of heaven upon the earth in 
sight of men. Not heaven the abode of God, but heaven as used 
by this book. The word of God was not within the reach of 
men, and the first beast held it too sacred to give to men and 
withheld it from them, confining or imprisoning it in a dead 
language, but this lamb-like beast translates the word of God into 
their language, and so brings it down to them. 

When the Bible — the two witnesses had long been dead — they 
are represented as issuing fire from their mouths to devour their 
enemies that should hurt them. This they could do by testifying 
against their sins, so here bringing down fire is but another form 
of expressing the same fact, the translation of the word of God 
into the language of men, so it could reprove their sins and 
guide their lives, bringing it within their understanding. 

The characteristics of this earth beast are very carefully 
drawn. His origin is of the earth, not from heaven, and his 
authority is exercised over "them that dwell on the earth/' 
Though he looks innocent, he speaks like the Dragon, his great 
sire. His speech betrayeth him. He brings the word of God to 
the people in their own tongue like an apostle of the Lamb, 
which the beast would not do; but he commands and causes the 
people of his kingdom to worship the spotted beast. He requires 
all the subjects of his kingdom to receive the trade mark on the 
hand or on the forehead, which is here signified as being one and 
the same thing. It does not elevate the hand but levels the 
head to the hand, as the same unthinking thing. This beast is 
not a person; neither was the beast he copied a person. We can- 
not receive the lesson till we get our minds free from individuals. 
We cannot even separate the Dragon, the beast and the earth 
beast into distinct and independent powers, for they are one on 
the earth side just as the Father and Son and Holy Spirit are one 
on the heavenly side of this contest. But both powers have their 
10 



H 6 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

different manifestations. We must not fall into the other error 
of supposing these beasts refer merely to evil in general. They 
are definite, historic powers, but are viewed in that light which 
belongs to this book only. The seven churches that were 
addressd in the seven letters did not lose any of their autonomy 
or distinct existence, etc., by the fact of their being woven into 
the structure of the entire book and being addressed by a cast of 
language that could be equally applied to all churches that resem- 
ble them in these particulars, etc. The infinite and the finite are 
strangely connected here, as in a contest, one against the other. 

The advantage of presenting the matter in this method is 
manifest. It cannot be imagined otherwise so well given. The 
pattern is very large. It deals with the elements, the principles 
and the essence of things as they were to be and do exist in this 
world as it stands related to the LittleLamb, who is the hero of 
this mighty age-lasting drama. The reader, I promise, who will 
look long at this larger method of teaching, will experience the 
most delightful exhilaration of mind and heart. Entirely apart 
from its historic value and the wondrous assurances of its divine 
origin and end, apart from literary and artistic considerations, 
the habit of seeing great matters in their great essentials, is both 
to understand them better and to use them better. It simplifies 
and unites our knowledge. 

Illustrating this method of teaching, if we say " all the world 
should have the Washingtons and Jeffersons of the Americas" we 
seem not at first to have expressed a matter of large bearings. 
But we have divided the world into two parts, the one blessed 
and the other unblessed. "The Americas" does not take on 
close definition in the mind at once nor equally in all minds. 

One will think only of the countries so named, or of the one 
proper America, while another will at once include all republics 
of the world as Americas in this sense. One will think of 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. H7 

Washington and Jefferson in their persons and personal char- 
acteristics while the other will properly see them in their repre- 
sentative characters as related to the republic in which they acted 
a distinguished and age-making part, and also in all other repub- 
lics where other men have acted the same corresponding part, just as 
the sacred writer saw Enoch still living and immortal in the world. 
But as no other country is just like America, the mind begins to 
compare, keeping America in mind as the pattern to see what 
nations may be in this sense called Americas. 

The lines may be drawn differently in different minds, but 
through all opinions as to which may be called Americas, America 
herself remains the fixed standard for judging and we positively 
know that was meant, though we may not clearly prove that some 
other countries might or might not have been included in the 
mind of the speaker. Not the map of the continent, not its 
geography, not its religion, etc., comes to view, but the character 
of the government and that we always carry in the mind in looking 
around the world to find which, in this sense, are Americas and 
which not. 

This is exactly the kind of description the Cloth of Gold gives 
us of the world powers that slew the innocent Son of God. The 
Romes slew him and trod his holy city under foot and as- 
sumed to administer his kingdom. Which are the Romes? 
Take her characteristics, as here so well drawn, for our standard, 
and not only every government may be brought to the test, not 
only every church, but every individual as well, who abets in any 
form, organized oppositions to the law of the Little Lamb. 

Washingtons and Jeffersons are not referred to at all in their 
personal characters, but for what they represent. Men greater in 
personal character might be found; men who represented greater 
interests to the world, even, and found outside of all republics, 
but it is with the single view to their relations with governments 



H 8 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

they are here used. So it is in this revelation. It is in the view 
that the Christ is to rule this world, that this book was written and 
that his enemies are so clearly and so well characterized. 

Beyond Rome no government is clearly signified here, except 
the two-horned, or earth beast, but all governments are, in the 
degree of application to them of the great fact of opposition to 
his reign, also guilty. 

So every church in like manner, and every member of church 
who upholds or abets opposition to the will of the Christ or perverts 
his truth, is of the Romes and of the Harlots of the earth. 

If we have fixed or can fix definitely that the spotted beast is 
a great politico-religious power, as the Dragon is the pagan power 
of Rome, then it remains for us to fix with equal definiteness this 
other power, this two-horned beast that pays fealty to the spotted 
beast and the Dragon, and that exercises all the " authority of the 
first beast in his sight " and that forces his subjects to worship 
him. Who is he? Not a person, but a power that answers to 
these characteristics as follows: 

ist. Earthly in its origin. 

2d. Having a more innocent appearance, more lamblike. 

3rd. Speaks or holds the doctrine of the Dragon, resting 
its claims upon political authority, world power, by virtue of 
succession, etc. 

4th. It exercises all the authority of the first beast, command- 
ing religious acts, etc. 

5th. Makes "them that dwell upon the earth, the worldly 
people, to worship the first beast. ,, 

6th. It translates the word of God or brings down fire to the 
earth. 

7th. It works signs, creating by its authority, an image to the 
spotted beast and causing it to breathe, "to have life, etc." 

8th. It causes all its subjects to receive the mark of the beast 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH H9 

on the right hand or in the forehead in order to hold commercial 
relations in his kingdom. 

Is there any power having any connection with the beast that 
will respond to this description? 

i st. The British Church sprang out of a quarrel Henry the 
Eighth had with the Pope (to whom England had been loyal) 
about his sinful divorces. Earthy enough, surely. 

2d. Some of the worst features of the papacy are not al- 
lowed in the British Established Church. More innocent look- 
ing. 

3rd. The 'English Church holds to the doctrine of succession 
through the popes. " Voice of the Dragon." 

4th. It is established by law, is a world power in ecclesiastical 
dress, that is a religious, state and a political church. 

5th. Its membership is required to be loyal to its authority 
and so to the doctrine and practice of succession. 

6th. King James' translation of the scriptures, ordered by the 
British government, has spread the world around. 

7th. Henry the Eighth commanded and the government of 
Great Britain formed a church in imitation of the papal church, 
making the head of the English government the head of the 
English church, as the Pope of Rome is the head of the Roman 
church. 

8th. The English priests fraternize with the Roman church 
and preserve an attitude of corresponding unfraternity with the 
antipapists. 

Re-ordination is not required of a Roman priest on uniting 
with the English church, and the unfraternal attitude of the 
English church toward the Evangelical people is well known. 
What a sharp outline photograph this is to have been taken so 
many centuries before it came to pass. 



150 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

NUMBER OF THE BEAST. 

"Here is wisdom. He that hath understanding let him 
count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, 
and his number is six hundred and sixty-six." 

There is no other part of the Revelation that has so stoutly 
contradicted its being a revelation as the speculations about the 
number of the Beast. 

The direction in which the exegetes and expositors have 
sought the solution has entirely misled them. They have "all 
o'ershot the mark." 

What could the faithful exile have thought to have seen the 
learned guessing that has been wasted over those few words of 
his? The methods sought for the answer were entirely alien 
to the genius of the book. 

The solution sought by adding together the numeral values 
of the letters that give the result 666 is a paltry treatment, far 
below the work and has gone far toward bringing the noble old 
Cloth into disrepute. He who sits down with pencil and paper 
to work out on a mathematical basis any part of its contents will 
never give the world what is asked for. He has missed not the 
scope only and the aim, but the very heart of it. 

The book chooses its own mode, but in that mode does all 
that its chosen vehicle is capable of doing to convey the true 
meaning. 

Poetic and dramatic art we have in large measure and inter- 
spersed with mighty sayings of God himself in plain and awful 
words, but juggling with alphabetic signs, has no place here. 
The abuse of this book as a resort by all kinds of adventurers 
for the purpose of escaping the proofs which might easier test 
their preaching from other scriptures; and its abuse from doc- 
trinal controversies and from wonder-lovers in general, who have 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 151 

used it for personal or sectarian ends, there is none of them 
have done more wrong than those who have treated it as a book 
of acrostics, or of conundrums to be played with. It is true that 
in language of so large patterns and mental perspectives drawn 
in characters so deep, clouds and rivers and mountains of 
rainbows and thunders and pealing trumpets; of star-fallings, 
sun-scorchings and drouths; of gaping abysses and striving of 
winds; of men angels, daemons, etc., there would seem to be a 
large room given for different opinions, but the cryptic is me- 
chanical, the Cloth is woven, the conception is germinal. There 
is unity of the highest order. The vision follows strictly its own 
path, and it chose forms of expression that outwear all changes 
and come safely unimpaired to us across these eighteen centuries, 
and its great facts the worst history cannot badly pervert. 

The expression, " Here is wisdom," some of our learned men 
have taken somewhat in the light of a personal challenge, and a 
vast waste of learned guessing and riddle solving have been in- 
dulged. But wisdom is not learning, is not education, and never 
can accept them in its place. 

"They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma- 
ment; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for- 
ever and forever." The wise man is he who builds his house upon 
a rock, not on the shifting sand. Those who are " sealed with the 
seal of God in the forehead," those " who dwell in heaven." These 
are" wise," and in this is their wisdom that they follow the " Little 
Lamb whithersoever he goeth." "These" have understanding. 
They follow him who comes in the Father's name and in keep- 
ing sacred time. Another misleading phrase is in the words, "It 
is the number of a man." Taking this in a literal source, many 
have searched for names of individuals the letters of whose names 
when used as numerals would, by the process of addition, amount 
to 666. 



I5 2 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

"Neron Caesar'' is one of the names which, by this method, 
seems to many to be the person referred to. A dozen other 
names have been suggested with greater or less acceptance as the 
person who is to wear this brand of 666. 

The conflicting claims are so nearly equal as to have left our 
commentators in a state of confusion amid the conflicting claim- 
ants, etc. This method was resorted to from an early day, and 
it is said that as early as the third century it was observed that 
Lateinos contained the required number, and that therefore the 
Latin kingdom was meant. But since it is the beast that has 
this number, it cannot be personal. The beast is impersonal. 
The beast is a succession of persons and powers, expressed in 
seven heads and ten horns. Rather it is a power already de- 
scribed, composed of allied powers and having two diverse na- 
tures, shown not only by the heads and horns of these beasts, but 
also by the spots, etc.; so that no person can fill it. As on the 
heavenly side all personalities are submerged to give elevation to 
the principals, the divine trinity, so on the other side the same 
subsidence of personality is had to give eminence to the diabolic 
trio. The words, "for it is the number of a man," must not be 
taken to refer to any one man in contrast to other individual 
men, but man as opposed to God. 

The current and somewhat plausible interpretation is found 
by adding together the numeral values of the letters worn on the 
Pope's tiara. But it is also ingenious, like the former, and out 
of keeping with the scope and tenor of the work. 

It is the number of man, mortal and sinful, as against the 
Little Lamb. That is, the Little Lamb comes in God's number. 
This gives meaning and point to the antithesis. 

We note that this number is both the number of the Beast 
and the number of his name, and that no man should " be able 
to buy or to sell save he that hath the mark even the name of 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 153 

the Beast or the number of his name." To have the name was 
equivalent to having the number of the name. 

It is declared that this two-horned beast causeth all — " that 
there be given them a mark on their right hand or upon their 
forehead (in order that they might buy or sell), and that no man 
should be able (or enabled) to buy or to sell save he that hath the 
mark even the name of the beast." 

This description clearly points to a trade mark, a commercial 
sign. The motive and object of imposing the name or number 
of the beast upon his subjects by the earth beast was a commer- 
cial one. None should buy or sell save he that hath the mark, 
or the name, or its equivalent, the number of the name. For 
trading purposes he can have either, for either will answer. It 
must be noticed that this is not alone the number of the first or 
spotted beast, but the number of the two-horned beast also, for 
it is he who is said to enjoin it. By implication he also himself 
has the number, and all his subjects are required to have the 
number or the name. 

The mark of the beast therefore was not a mark of distinction 
as between the first and second beast, nor as between the beast 
and the dragon, but was the mark of both beasts, and therefore 
also of the diabolical trinity, and also of all them that worship it, 
and this in contrast with the Lamb and his sealed host. "If any 
man receive a mark in his forehead or upon his hand he also 
shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God." 

That is to say in the further illustration of the great parody 
already given that, as the Lamb seals his servants in the forehead, 
causing them to understand the truth and to walk in its holy 
light, so the beast marks his servants in the right hand (to work 
and slave for him), or in the forehead to blind them so they will 
serve him. That is as the Lamb comes in the sacred number of 
seven, so the beast comes in the secular number of six. It was 



154 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

entirely with reference to buying and selling that his servants 
were required to have the number, or the name of the beast. 

In his claims and assumptions as opposed to the Lamb he is 
in the number six, a time number as opposed to eternity, imply- 
ing worldly as opposed to heavenly, and labor and commerce and 
trade as opposed to rest, religion and eternity, etc. Six is the 
symbol of time and toil just as seven is of rest and reward. Seven 
is sacred, six is secular, temporal. Christ came by seven angels, 
seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven 
evangels, seven bowls of wrath, etc., etc., etc. But the beast and 
his kingdom are all work days. He knows no Sabbath, has no 
rest for the hereafter. He is of the earth and earthy. He was 
not slain from the foundation of the world. Those who follow 
him, "they that dwell on the earth," shall wonder whose names 
were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the 
world when they behold the beast how that he was and is not. 
"Born of time, he ends in time." The dragon is six, the beast is 
six, and the second beast called the false prophet is six. The 
Little Lamb was ordained and was crucified before the foundation 
of the world, to be a Prince and a Savior, and he comes in the 
sacred number and order, and he breaks the six seals in the 
Herculean labors no other in heaven or earth or under the earth 
could essay, and then rests upon the Sabbath. The Sabbath seal 
brings half an hour of "silence." The trumpet angels blow six 
trumpets, but the seventh gives no further news, the exhibit 
closes for the Sabbath as in the seventh seal; and the seventh 
bowl is only poured into the air. But the beast knows no Sab- 
bath, no rest for his people. He is all for time, and is all of time, 
all for this world. His followers "have no rest, their smoke 
goeth up for ever and forever, and they shall have no rest day or 
night." This Revelation, as we have shown, is conducted on the 
plan that recognizes sacred time in creation, but the Beast repre- 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 155 

sents worldly and secular interests only. "The former things are 
passed away." "Behold I make all things new." "And he saith 
unto me, ' Write for these words are true and faithful.' " 

The new creation is the completion of the old. It bears the 
pattern and joins to it as part to part. One of the titles of the 
Lamb is "The Beginning of The Creation of God." But the Beast 
is a merchant riding a black horse bearing balances in hand. He 
is buying and selling, and all who would buy and sell must ack- 
nowledge his temporal, his world power, and this is his number 
six; his number, and their number, all whose religion like his is of 
this world and ends with this world and knows not the rest that 
remaineth for the people of God. But three sixes placed side by 
side gives us 666. Upon the same method Christ would give us 
777, in seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls, etc. But 
seven is symbolic, it is sacred. It is not numeral, not mathemat- 
ical. It is certificate and pledge of the new creation as emanat- 
ing from God who made the world in six days and kept the 
seventh, and ordered seven lights for his tabernacle, etc. It is 
held by some that it was the second or two horned beast that is 
said to be numbered 666 and not the spotted beast, but this dis- 
tinction is entirely fanciful and imports nothing as it includes 
both, and also all their following. It was to be an universal 
trade mark. 

It is noticeable that the persons who are said to have been re- 
quired to receive the mark of the beast or his number, are given 
in the enumeration as six. "And he causeth all ! the small and 
2 the great and 3 the rich and 4 the poor and 5 the free and 6 the bond 
that there be given them a mark," etc. The mark in the hand 
or in the forehand are equivalents as they should have either one 
or the other. It does not bring the hand up to the height of the 
forehead, but levels the forehead to the grade of the hand. This 
presents a strong contrast to the sealing in the forehead and 



I5 6 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

numbering and recording in the Lamb's book of life. A mark 
is a trade sign, a seal is a heavenly gift. 

There is no such number as six hundred and sixty-six known 
literally or in the mathematical sense, either to Revelation or 
the papacy. There is not one instance in the book of a number 
being so used, that is in its common numeral value; neither are 
the numeral values of the alphabet ever referred to. The very 
idea is a fugitive to the book. But it is asked why use three 
sixes? The answer to that question will be covered by the answer 
to the following similar questions. "Why do three unclean 
spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the Dragon, the beast 
and the false phophet? Why is the city of the beast represented 
as being divided into three parts when the seventh bowl was 
poured out? Or why is the evil power presented as a trio?" One 
answer will cover all these questions. It belongs to the mimicry 
of Satan, just as his wearing seven heads and having one head 
wounded to death, and rising from the dead, and as the locusts 
who wear crowns "like unto gold." They belong to the great 
parody. God appears in seven spirits going before his face into 
all the earth, the Little Lamb has seven eyes and horns, and the 
spirit has seven candlesticks. God hath seven spirits, the beast 
has three, and these three proceed from the diabolical trio. The 
world putting on the pretense of religion is the great mock show. 
His number is of man not God. It is a mark not a seal. It is 
upon the hand or forehead, no matter which. It is a trade mark 
and is enforced by the world powers, by the beast that comes up 
out of the abyss. This world is his kingdom and three "woes" 
are pronounced upon him. His dominion slips away from him 
and "three plagues" destroy him. But inquiry is made, why and 
how does it happen that a dark caricature of the plan of salva- 
tion revealed in the gospel and exemplified in the primitive 
church should throw a dark shadow across the succeeding ages 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 157 

and take on a form of parody as here shown? Evidently it was 
to clearly identify the nature and status of the great apostacy, 
and also include all the world powers averse to the reign of 
Christ in the earth. There might other so-called Christian na- 
tions have been described as Rome and Britain were, if the object 
had been a treatise on the worldly forms of religion, but to 
clearly point out the characteristics of worldliness was to identify 
these beyond mistake, and not only so but also to show the mys- 
tery of iniquity, the power and cunning of Satan, who, transform- 
ing himself into an angel of light, should deceive many. The 
Little Lamb had said on his trial before the world powers, "My 
kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world 
then would my servants fight." And the contra-positions of 
these two powers as presented in the Revelation when they are 
gathered up and set opposite each other are full of great and 
deep significance. No such paltry business is dreamed of as 
guessing on a riddle, or as what person is meant by an acrostic 
of alphabetic numbers. It is all about character and is most 
forcefully drawn. "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear 
the words of this prophecy and keep the things written therein. ,, 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Looking again upon the Golden Cloth and comparing the 
strange movements of the ages and the character of the opposing 
sides respectively, there are two things need fixed attention. The 
first is the rich investment of titles with which the Little Lamb is 
clothed as compared with the enemy. The other is the words of 
endearment and refinement that are used in referring to them. 

His titles occupy a large space at the beginning. He is 
called the "Faithful Witness," the "First Born from the dead," 
the "Ruler of the Kings of the earth," the "Living One," the 
"Son of God," the "Beginning of the Creation of God," "Lion of 
the Tribes of Judah," etc., etc. He walks amid the seven candle- 
sticks and holds the seven stars in his right hand; he has the key 
of David; "he was dead and is alive again; "he hath eyes like a 
flame of fire and the two-edged sword proceeding out of his 
mouth," etc. 

Not only these endearing words of promise from the Little 
Lamb, but his painstaking care for his followers are as minute. 
They are "sealed in the forehead" and they are numbered and 
recorded, and their deeds are registered in the Lamb's book of 
life. They each have a new name, written on a white gem, which 
no one knows but he that receiveth it. They are each measured 
with the heavenly reed, and their temple and their altar are 
measured. Their robes are spotless white. They are under his 
tabernacle when they move onward. They shall sit with him upon 
his throne, shall walk with him in white, shall never hunger nor 
thirst, etc., etc. 

158 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 159 

All this is in striking contrast with the Dragon family. From 
his first warning that the Devil "is about to cast some of you into 
prison," he continues to present him as a violent and coarse 
enemy. He rides a red horse, holding a great sword to take peace 
from the earth. He opposes the word of God to mingle blood. 
He comes "up out of the pit of the abyss" as king of the devour- 
ing locusts. He is a great red Dragon, seeking to devour the in- 
fant church as soon as born. He has ten horns and seven crowned 
heads, and with his tail he sweeps down the stars from heaven, and 
from his mouth issues a flood of persecution after the retreating 
woman. He is refused measurement with God's word and is left 
without the temple, with dogs and sorcerers, etc. He gives his power 
to another son of perdition, the spotted beast. He is a murderer 
of God's two witnesses and an accuser and murderer of his saints. 
The Seer now beholds his hero standing upon the Mount of Zion, 
and with him the hundred and forty-four thousands, having his 
name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. And 
a voice is heard from heaven as the voice of many waters and as 
the voice of great thunder, and as the voice of harpers with their 
harps; and they sing a new song before the throne and the 
elders and the Living Ones. It was a song no one could learn, 
"save the hundred and forty-four thousand." 

What must have been the effect upon the exile from home 
and friends, to have burst upon his vision, his hero standing 
yonder upon that Mount Zion, where stood the temple once glo- 
rious but now fallen, and Jerusalem itself sacked and ruined and 
all its glory departed. Zion profaned, the disciples of the Little 
Lamb scattered and broken; the apostles, his companions, all long 
ago dead, and himself tarrying till the master came. And now, 
how glorious the vision, Zion restored and the Little Lamb stand- 
ing upon its summit with his white host, singing a new song none 
others can ever learn; that is, others had not and could not ex- 



160 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

perience the truth it contained, that they had been true followers 
of the Lamb, and had by his blood been purchased out of the 
earth. This is the multitude which, the Seer said, no man could 
number, but God had sealed and numbered and recorded, and 
he knew each one, and the Little Lamb knows each one by name, 
for he has given each a new name and written it upon a white 
gem; so he has it all to himself, for no one else can read it. That 
is, each one who follows him, the Little Lamb will glorify and 
write upon him his name and his Father's name and the name of 
the New Jerusalem. And for all this mighty change he will still 
find his own personality, and forever retain it and see and know 
it is his own real self, all glorified with nothing lost but the evil. 
The first appearance of this white army was in the fifth seal, where 
we saw the souls under the altar, then the Reformation period 
dawned; and we saw them numbered and standing before the 
throne and pitching their tabernacle toward Canaan, and now we 
have an additional fact that they were those who had no guile and 
were purchased from among men and were not defiled with 
women. Defiled with women means defiled by false churches, 
and that brings to view again the Reformation period, which in- 
cludes the present time and shows that those who now follow the 
Lamb and resist the temptations of false religions, do now stand 
in the company with the early reformers and the early martyrs. 
The virgins and martyrs are thus brought to the same estate and 
are both called the first fruits unto God and the Lamb "and in 
their mouth was found no lie, and they are without blemish and 
follow the Little Lamb whithersoever he goeth. ,, 

Here is contained the valuable lesson that each of the ages 
has its own temptations, and those who overcome shall really and 
truly enter into the fold where the Little Lamb is their shepherd, 
and he will lead them to the "fountains of waters of life. ,, All 
the saints, both living and dead, are reckoned as in one army and 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 161 

not in two, as we are accustomed to think. The great choruses 
that go with the drama are all by anticipation. It is the Millennial 
chorus and marks no time, but sings the changes as they come. 

THE LAST CALL. 

THE THIRD EVANGELIZATION. 

Standing in the middle of the Cloth and looking toward the 
two ends, we see two series of seven each on both sides, four in 
all. The new series are the seven evangels and the seven avengers, 
or bowls of wrath. These, like the seals and trumpets, are 
divided into groups of three and of four, but only the first, sec- 
ond and third of the evangels are numbered; the other four are 
there, but not numbered. These two series differ from the seals 
and trumpets, in presenting their groups of three first, and the 
four next. If the Cloth was folded in the middle, the faces of the 
groups would come together in order, the three laying against the 
three and the four against the four, thus resembling a cloth 
designed to match, folded. The evangels complement the seals 
and the avengers complement the trumpets. The evangels come 
before the avengers, just as the seals come before the trumpets, 
but they do not extend the actual time. They gleen or supple- 
ment them. The evangels, however, do not present any world 
sign, and purposely avoid numbering the four group and so pre- 
sent no world sign, which shows that things are all going the 
heavenly way. The evangels and avengers are, also, Christ and 
his apostles in the regeneration, or third evangelization, as the 
the seals and the trumpets were in the first, and the two witnesses 
were in the second or Reformation. Then the world powers 
were dominant; now the heavenly powers prevail. 

Between these groups in all the series is an opening, where sig- 
nificant words are spoken in addition the significance of the 
n 



162 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

change from one side to the other. These groups stand four 
earthly as against the three heavenly. In the seals, we passed 
from the earthly group of the four horses to the group of the three, 
the heavenly powers. We passed from the four first trumpets of 
apostacy and woe to the church, to the three trumpets of woe to the 
world. While these two series were united as Christ and his apos- 
tles, they were divided as to giving good news and bad news, etc. 

The evangels and the avengers also stand as good news and 
as judgment, as the two mounts Ebal and Gerazim, as the two 
tables of the law, and the two sides of the veil of the temple on 
which this story is written, called here the Golden Cloth. 

Following the group of three in the evangels we have two 
of those pregnant sayings: "Here is the patience of the saints, 
they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of 
Jesus." And " I heard a voice from heaven saying, write, blessed 
are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith 
the spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works 
do follow with them. ,, The word patience occurs just seven 
times in the Golden Cloth, and strongly suggests it belongs to the 
governing septenary principle, and this circumstance raises it out 
of its ordinary significance and imports something more and 
above its single quality. Suffering and bearing with the domi- 
nant evil in the world from an assurance in the heart of the 
righteous outcome, and the triumph of the Little Lamb, is clearly 
meant. But in this instance, connected with the victorious proc- 
lamation of the Gospel in all the world, coupled also with a 
blessing upon them that die in the Lord " henceforth," the long 
waited for and prayed for time has come. Their patience and 
faith have found their realization and reward. They are now in 
the kingdom of Christ without the patience and tribulations, as 
hitherto. Their tribulations and patience are now satisfied. 

So the second remark contains another sermon of wondrous 






MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 163 

import, showing what a change has come over the state of the 
world. The manner in which the spirit adds his sanction to the 
sentiment, "blessed are they that die in the Lord, etc.," is very 
like his sanction given in the seven letters. 

It was a voice from heaven saying " write," and was followed 
by the spirit's sanction. To them that die in the Lord hereafter, 
there is a blessing not known before. Their works do follow with 
them. 

In the evangel series, the group of four has two major and 
two minor parts acted. So, also, there are two additional and 
minor parts acted in the seven avengers, making nine in all, like 
the trumpets. In these two series the group of three comes first 
in order, showing a change in conditions. The two groups of 
the seven evangels are divided by the numbering of the first 
group, but are also divided by the one acting as sower and the 
other as harvester. They thus appear to be all one side, the right 
side, and this is the reason for the absence of the four, which is a 
world sign, and which is missing here. It is in passing from the 
group of three to the group of four that we first observed the 
significant change, by the rising up of the promise from its place 
at the bottom to a place over the spirits' warning, etc., in the 
seven letters. 

We are now looking upon the times of the coming world, the 
regeneration, when the star-light of our reformation is gone out 
by the rising of the sun of the third evangelization. The three 
woes and three plagues have been enacted upon the former world 
powers, and times have changed. The things of God and the 
people of God are coming into the ascendant, and the new evan- 
gelization puts the heavenly forces to the front. They now take 
the initiative, and are no longer in the world by mere sufferance, 
as hitherto. The group of three, now coming first instead of the 
four as in the seals and trumpets, shows the rising of the heavenly 



164 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

powers and the waning of the worldly, as also the entire absence 
of the signature of four in the series, etc. 

These evangels seem as a reverse side to the seals, as the avengers 
do to the trumpets. The evangels are more mystic than the aven- 
gers, as the seals are more mystic than the trumpets. 

" I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal 
gospel to proclaim to them that dwell upon the earth." 

This evangelization differs from the preaching, too, in the fol- 
lowing characteristics: The first one was a white horse on the 
earth, followed by a red one whose rider had a sword to take 
peace from the earth. This one is conducted by an angel in 
in mid heaven, and is followed by another, bringing additional 
good news. 

The first evangelization was also presented by an angel stand- 
ing within the temple and casting the fire out into the world, but 
himself remained in the temple; and when the first trumpet 
sounded, hail and blood mingled with the fire. 

The second evangelization, which is the Reformation, is 
marked by a partial restraint of the world powers that permitted 
the sealing in the forehead of God's servants, and a great number 
were sealed and started toward the promised land, but the world 
powers were as yet only restrained, but now we have come to the 
regeneration and the angel is unconfined and rises and takes J;o 
the mid heaven and flies from nation to nation, to preach the 
everlasting gospel unrestrained and unharmed, and he is followed 
by another, bringing good news more still, saying, " Babylon is 
fallen, is fallen/' — twice said. It had one fall when the Reforma- 
tion came out, for then a tenth part of the great city of Babylon 
fell and the world powers deserted her, and seven thousand of 
her titles fell, and fear fell upon many, but now the good news 
comes that " fallen, fallen, is Babylon," "the wicked city that has 
made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication." 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 165 

The first evangel proclaims: " Fear God and give him glory 
for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him that 
made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the fountains of 
waters.' ' 

Notice the universality about this, both as to the broad nature 
of the call and manner of it. The " fountains of waters'' is the 
East, and refers to the gospel going to the East as from the 
West, where the active life of the world has flown and is now com- 
passing the old world with the light of God. If this evangeliza- 
tion is not already begun, we are at least getting ready for it. 
The seventh trumpet is yet before us and after it sounds there is 
time no longer, for then all shall be " fulfilled that God hath 
promised to his servants, the prophets." 

The third evangel follows and proclaims what seems at first 
very like the second. 

" If any man worshippeth the beast and his image and re- 
ceiveth the mark," etc., "he also shall drink of the wrath of God 
which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger," etc. That 
is terror spoken to our foe. 

There was a time when Babylon was not, when the beast was 
not, but the Dragon, the impersonation of the old serpent and 
Satan, the Devil, was represented by the Roman government, 
and it put the Little Lamb to death and persecuted and cor- 
rupted the church till its light was extinguished, and out of it. 
Out of the sea, came the beast, and Babylon is the city of the 
beast, and the harlot is the bride of the beast, but the world powers 
are not defeated when Babylon falls first, but are divorced only. 

That divorce was made when the four angels that upheld 
Babylon were freed from allegiance and went to fighting. They 
will yet turn against Babylon, but their position at the present 
moment is one of neutrality between the locust kingdom and the 
other religions. 



166 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

Their divorce from the locust power only puts them back where 
they were before they began to uphold it, except they act under 
more enlightened conditions. But they neither banish a man for 
his religion nor for his irreligion. They protect all religions and 
all irreligions, but they are world powers yet, and will be and con- 
tinue offensive to God till they rule in righteousness and equity. 

The third angel said: "If any man worship the beast and 
his image or receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, 
he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is pre- 
pared unmixed in the cup of his anger, and he shall be tormented 
with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in 
the presence of the Little Lamb, and the smoke of their torment 
goeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, 
they that worship the beast and his image and whoso receiveth the 
mark of his name." "Here is the patience of saints." Righteous 
retribution is the abiding faith of the saints, and their faith sus- 
tains their patience. 

Then follows that other evidence of the advanced condition 
of affairs in the world already alluded to: "Blessed are the 
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the spirit 
that they may rest from their labors for their works follow with 
them." This marks a condition different from the early age. At that 
time those who died had, like our dear old exile, to look down 
into a dark future in which personal worth and example would be 
lost to the world; the great black area here on this Cloth lay upon 
their track. Where the Bible would be lost and the church gone 
out, and the bones of martyrs, not their deeds, would be wor- 
shipped, and even worldly intelligence would go out and more 
than a thousand years of darkness settle upon it, but now we 
mark a day when all that is done in righteousness will live on 
after us and will increase the fruit of our sowing. " Their works 
do follow," blessed and consoling thought. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 167 

This present moment is a time between the dark ages and the 
fruition, and is here connected with the third evangelization or 
regeneration. But this third going out is presented both as a 
world-wide sowing, and also as a world-wide reaping, and the 
harvest scene is here presented also as following the sowing. 
The two view point is still maintained. The sowing is the 
heavenly aspect and the harvest is the earthly. 

" And I saw and behold a white cloud and on the cloud I saw 
one sitting like unto a son of man, having on his head a golden 
crown and in his hand a sharp sickle." Here we are looking at 
a point in the Golden Cloth to which the world has not arrived 
and not yet experienced, and we are at the slight disadvantage of 
not being able to show the actual history to verify it. 

A cloud was the ascension chariot of the Little Lamb when 
he ascended; and it was a garment when he descended with the 
open book in one hand, with the rainbow upon his head, and 
which connects this mission with his return to earth. " One like 
unto a son of man " also connects the mission more closely with 
the Little Lamb than either the angel of the temple or the angel 
from the rising sun. There is a marked rising in the character 
of this evangel. Add to this that it is not now a sowing but a 
reaping time. This one has a crown of gold on his head, and in 
his hand a sickle, and another angel came out from the temple 
crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the throne saying: 
"Send forth thy sickle and reap." 

The first evangel we had was the white horse with a bow, do- 
ing a kind of warfare as an archer, bringing down one at a time 
of the enemy, also represented by the angel casting out coals 
from the temple that produced a fermentation of the elements 
in society. Then we had the Reformation in which there was a 
restraining of the world powers to enable the sealing of God's 
servants in the forehead, but now the universal seed sowing is 



1 68 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

followed by the mighty harvest where the sickle is thrust in and 
the harvest is gathered from the whole earth. Here is a con- 
tinued rising toward a glorious climax, the consummation and 
fruition. 

The angels now come out from the temple, and do not re- 
main in it as before, but fly above the earth in mid heaven and 
ride the clouds and fly on the wings of the wind, and the whole 
earth is a harvest field, and " the hour to reap has come;" and 
"the harvest is over-ripe," and " he that sat on the cloud cast his 
sickle upon the earth and the earth was reaped." 

Here the scene is very like the parable of the end of the 
world, where the angels are the reapers, reaping all the " sowing 
from beside all waters." There is a wondrous and striking har- 
mony. An angel mid heaven, and no longer creeping about in 
the earth preaching the everlasting gospel, and good news fol- 
lows and confirms it, saying, " Babylon is fallen, is fallen." This 
throws light upon the work of the world powers let loose to fight, 
which has resulted, together with the testimony of the Little 
Lamb, to overcome and destroy the locust power under the 
beast. 

And this is followed by a third evangel, warning all never 
again to worship the beast nor his image, and then another, " like 
unto a son of man," thrusts in his sickle and reaps the earth of its 
ripe harvest. 

But another harvest follows, of a different kind. The wheat 
is gathered, but the tares remain and are here called "the vine 
of the earth." "And another angel came out of the temple, he 
having also a sharp sickle, and another that had power over fire; 
he came from the altar, and he called with a great voice to him 
that had the sickle: "Send forth thy sickle and gather the clus- 
ters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe;" and 
the angel cast his sickle into the earth and gathered the vintage 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 169 

of the earth and cast it into the great wine press of the wrath of 
God." 

" The vine of the earth " refers to " them that dwell on the 
earth" as opposed to "them that dwell in heaven." 

The wheat has been harvested, and now the tares also are to 
be gathered. There is no sacred character connected with the 
vine, only as the vine and branches illustrate the close relations 
between the Little Lamb and his followers. This "vine of the 
earth" has now also been made ripe by the summer sun of the 
regeneration shining so clear and warm, and so this earth vine 
also is gathered and cast into the great wine press that is " with- 
out the city." Its being outside the city, the church, is the sec- 
ond fact showing us it is worldly. When the temple was measured 
to be rebuilt, the court without was ordered to be rejected from 
measurement, and here they are trodden outside the city. The 
followers of the Little Lamb were not to measure or to number 
the worldly earthy people. 

We have seen them represented by a red horse, and a black 
horse, and a dragon, and two successive beasts. They are not as 
grain, where each has an individuality of its own, but are "clus- 
ters of the vine." They are marked in the hand for business 
purposes, and they worship the beast and are merry and send 
gifts one to another, while God's two witnesses lie dead in their 
street. They are the prey of devouring locusts, the slaves and 
dupes of the beasts, and are frightened when God's witnesses are 
raised from the dead, and are unwise and have no understanding, 
and go uncounted and unmeasured, but are massed and bulked, 
and now are estimated by the furlong. They are outside the 
holy city, and are in a great wine-press of God's wrath, and the 
blood runs till it fills a lake sixteen hundred furlongs in extent. 

This is not a battle, not a war scene. It is a harvest scene. 
It is not blood of flesh, but blood of earth-creeping vines; that 



170 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

is the symbol of punishment, and its being outside the city shows 
it is confined to those who have not " the seal of God in the 
forehead," those who are not in the city, or tabernacle, or temple. 
They are called the "clusters of the vine of the earth" and "the 
"vintage of the earth." 

We also notice that the angel who gives the order to the 
sickle bearer to cast in his sickle "came out from the altar," and 
he is described as "he that hath power over fire." This guards 
us from falling into the error of literalism and mistaking the 
nature of the bloody appearing scene for a mere carnal warfare. 

It was the angel that hath power over fire, that commands 
the judgment to be executed, and that means that the weapon 
was the word of God. So, we are three times guarded againt sup- 
posing this a mere carnal warfare. Here is a complete overthrow 
of the enemy. The view is world wide, as was the sowing that 
preceded it. All the righteous are gathered out, and then all 
things that offend and outside are to be trodden under foot, as 
they had trodden down the holy city for forty-two months, and 
this includes all the enemies of the Little Lamb, without regard 
to classes, and a sea of blood flows, in which the horses swim to 
their bridle bits. The universality of this judgment is shown by 
the signature of four, here multiplied by itself, giving sixteen fur- 
longs of bloody sea — four times four — all worldly power crushed. 

Hitherto blood and fire have been commingling. The red 
horse followed the white, with a great sword held aloft by his 
rider. The first trumpet was followed by " hail and fire mingled 
with blood," and so, also, the mountain that went down burning, 
turned the sea into blood, and the Reformation period, also, was 
marked by strange commingling of earthly and heavenly forces, 
as seen in the army of horsemen, but the evangels show a com- 
plete separation has taken place. In the region of the Golden 
Cloth, where this representation is embroidered, I see a white 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 171 

cloud and a white harvest field and white angels on the wing, 
preaching, and one following another, three in succession. I hear 
a sentiment spoken here that human life has changed conditions 
and that the dead do not now longer cry from the altar of sacri- 
fice and of martyrdom, but rest from their labor, and their works 
follow with them, their voice, like that of Abel, still speaking, 
though he is dead, and a great world-wide separation follows, the 
wheat all gathered and the tares all burned. The imagery here 
rests upon the harvest, which is the end of the world. The men- 
tion of horses as swimming in blood, brings to view the sugges- 
tion of the army of horsemen let loose from allegiance to fight, 
and now included in the vine of the earth as overthrown with all 
that offends. 

THE BOWLS OF WRATH. 

ALL ENDS. 

Lying side Dy side, upon the Cloth of Gold, and stretching 
toward the further end, are the two series, the evangels and the 
avengers. The avengers are judgments, and are counterpart to 
the trumpets, as negative to positive, and are companion to the 
evangels, as the trumpets are to the seals. The seals are cryptic 
and shadowy, an outline, and the trumpets are detail and supple- 
mental, etc. The same correspondence is seen here also. The 
seals and the evangels have very striking resemblances to the 
sermon on the Mount of Olives, concerning the end of the world 
and the coming of the Lord. The seals were supplemented by a 
lengthy account of the Reformation, lying parallel with the sixth 
seal, but the evangels are supplemented by gleanings of informa- 
tion, but no extensions of time. 

The four series; the seals, trumpets, evangels and avengers, or 
bowls, all reach the end of time, as time is reckoned in this book. 



I7 2 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH, 

The seven is not followed in a mathematical or exact manner, for 
the seals are supplemented with many other acts properly belong- 
ing to the series, and there are nine distinct parts borne in both 
the trumpets and the avengers, but two in each acting a subordi- 
nate part. 

The avengers, or bowls of wrath, follow the trumpet series 
with perfect regularity. The preface or preparation which these 
represented, the day of pentecost, is also preserved here. The 
avengers show us more even than the evangels that we have come 
under changed conditions of the world. By a confidence, 
unshaken from data already made, showing this Golden Cloth 
contains the actual history of the world to date, we may look into 
the future with profound assurance. This priority of the heavenly 
side, shown here by the three group coming first, began with the 
account of the two witnesses, and is maintained till the end. 
The group of three came first in the letters, and this is one of the 
many things which make the closing of the book seem like its 
beginning. 

The marks that separate the group of three from the group of 
four in the series of the avengers, is very striking. They do not 
now belong one to the earth and the other to heaven, as in the 
seals and trumpets, for they are all against the earth, just as the 
evangels are all for heaven. Still the three and the four groups 
are maintained in form, and between them is the same open 
space, where great signals are placed. Everything is going one 
way with the avengers. 

There are seven woes severer than the woes and the plagues 
of the reformation times. They are not any longer, simply neg- 
ative, and by sufferance of the world powers that permit the seal- 
ing of the servants of God in the forehead. The world powers 
are now destroyed. 

The judgments upon the world are commensurate with the 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 173 

greater power of the truth, now so loudly and powerfully pro- 
claimed, The world-wide evangelization is followed by the world- 
wide judgment upon the world powers, and now having the effect 
of positive judgments. In the rising of the heavenly powers from 
a state of subordination and tribulation to one of power and 
dominion, they assume a more aggressive attitude, like that which 
the world at the first visited upon the church. The conditions 
are reversed. This third evangelization promises to differ from 
the Reformation. The latter was not only under and by permis- 
sion of the world powers, but is not much more than its name 
imports, protestantism. It is a protest against the locust king- 
dom and a preparation for the third effort, accompanied by a con- 
dition of governments that cannot endure. The fact that pro- 
testantism had to contend with so base a foe compelled it to 
show its negative, which is always the weak side. Another hind- 
rance to all reformations is that the reform has to bring its cause 
in a measure to the level of its foe. Every reform has had to 
meet a state of things in the world that placed it under the dis- 
advantage of causing it to lower itself to meet its enemy on its 
own plane. Every great truth is immediately challenged as soon 
as proclaimed, and thus is made to fall short of its first ideal and 
promise. 

The preface to the Bowls presents another great sign in 
heaven. Our exile prophet describes it as " great" and "marvel- 
ous." 

Seven angels having seven plagues, which are the last, for in 
them is finished "the wrath of God." His description of the ef- 
fects of this sight upon himself is similar to that he experienced 
at seeing the glorified woman clothed with the sun and crowned 
with the twelve stars, etc. But his wonder here takes on still 
greater magnitude; this is a sign "great and marvelous." This 
preface is very similar to that which precedes the trumpets. Seven 



174 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

angels are presented in the one case, holding seven trumpets, and 
in the other "having seven plagues," the last, for in them is fin- 
ished the " wrath of God." 

They are both followed by what seems to be a preparation 
or preliminary for the execution of their mission upon the foes 
of the Lamb. 

We found that the trumpet series was conducted on a plan 
that contained the facts and history of the apostolic commission; 
their preparation and waiting at Jerusalem for the descent of the 
Holy Spirit, etc. Here we find the same kind of preparation fol- 
lowing the presentation of the seven angels with their seven 
plagues. There we had the appearance of a prayer meeting and 
tongues as of fire that sat upon the apostles and the word of 
God going out, but here we have a glassy sea, that is a multitude 
of people in white linen all " mingled with fire," permeated and 
lightened with the word of God, a mightier pentecost. This 
universality exactly suits the marked characteristic of the evan- 
gels. 

This glassy sea is explained to be the multitude of those who 
were victorious from the beast and as standing by or upon the 
sea, " having harps of God," etc. It is very different from 
that first where we saw their souls under the altar, crying and 
waiting for their time of avengement to come. They are all here 
now and are a part of the sea of the redeemed, and stand with them. 
They sing the song of Moses and of the Little Lamb; the song 
of deliverance. They have crossed over into the promised land, 
and the multitude of spiritual Israel are now a fire-blent sea of 
white linen. They sing: " All nations shall come and worship 
before thee for thy righteous acts have been made manifest." 
They are no longer questioned, the mists have fled away and the 
nations have come to his feet. All this stands as a preparation 
to the third evangelization as the day of pentecost did to the first, 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 175 

and as the restraining of the world powers through the four 
angels who held the four winds under the command of the angel 
of the sunrising did to the second. But the scale rises infinitely 
above those, for the first evangelization only cast out fire, the sec- 
ond proceeded, under world toleration, to go about sealing God's 
servants in the forehead and opening the temple, or tabernacle, 
and placing the word of God on the pulpit; but now it is per- 
manent, public and worldwide. The third evangelization is on a 
higher plane and results in an enduring and dominant power of 
the Little Lamb, for he says: "After these things I saw, and the 
temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. " 
It was out of this temple, which contains the ark, and the tent, 
and all the temporary arrangements, that the seven angels came 
forth to visit the seven last plagues upon the world power and 
upon the world spirit. They sing these words: "All nations 
shall come and worship before thee, for thy righteous acts have 
been made manifest." 

God's acts are now no longer questioned; the nations have 
surrendered to his righteous law. The trumpets that proclaimed 
his love are now avengers that execute his wrath. 

Knowledge now covers the earth as the waters cover the deep. 
The world is evangelized the third time, and deliverance has 
come, and God's righteous acts are seen to be good. 

"After these things I saw, and the temple of the tabernacle 
of testimony in heaven was opened." 

This enlarged form of expression is very striking. The great 
white army served in the tabernacle, but now " the temple of the 
tabernacle of the testimony in heaven is opened." This heightened 
power of expression in what seems to be the same thing shows the 
increased glory of the times. This heightening is still more in- 
creased by the words, "And the temple was filled with smoke 
from the glory of God and from his power, and none was able to 



176 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels 
should be finished." 

This symbol is grounded in the opening and dedication of 
the temple by Solomon and means that the work of the church 
at this time cannot be distinguished from the world, for all are 
now doing the will of God. 

The exodus of the Reformation is finished, and the journey 
is ended, and the temple is built, and the tabernacle meant for 
the journey only is now merged into the temple by placing the 
ark of the covenant in its permanent place. Hence the doubling 
of the words, "The temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in 
heaven, etc." Our white army seen in the supplement to the 
sixth seal has completed its journey, has arrived safely in the mil- 
lennium and folded its tent forever away. The world powers are 
crushed in "the wine press of God's wrath." 

The temple is far more glorious than the tabernacle, and the 
smoke from the incense — that is, the universal praise and service 
of God — will be so great that the world powers, working side by 
side now with the followers of the Little Lamb, and in a work of 
God so great and essential as to efface the outward distinctions of 
the church, and all will seem to move with one heart and one 
mind during the time that God's judgments are being visited 
upon the world's wickedness, destroying its very causes and 
sources. 

How mightily changed are the conditions since the first 
evangelization, and from the second, which is the current 
Reformation. The angels come outside the temple now, and 
not to preach only, but to pour out God's wrath upon the world's 
wickedness, and the world powers stand ready to assist, and 
"one of the four creatures "himself, in behalf of them all, gave 
unto the seven angels the seven bowls of wrath." 

But how can this combination against sin be conceived of as 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 177 

proceeding from the church and the world powers combined? 
Only by faith. God's dealings with Israel were full of paradoxes 
such as these : 

1. How could a nation of freed slaves come forth out of a 
polytheistic nation, as Egypt, and be themselves monotheists? 

2. How could they become polytheistic in practice when left 
to a nation of themselves, their own law condemning it? 

3. How could they be cured of polytheism while serving an- 
other polytheistic nation — Babylon? 

4. How could the Jews, the narrowest and most exclusive 
people on earth, give to the world its broadest and greatest re- 
former? 

5. Expecting a messiah, how could they reject and crucify 
him, and continue to hold out against him when the most en- 
lightened nations accept and worship him? 

6. How can the Gentiles, who hate and persecute the Jews, 
adore the Savior born of_a Jew woman? 

In the first place we must remind ourselves that this is the 
purpose and the outcome of this story, and that greatly changed 
conditions await the future of our onward march we may not see 
how but our Father knows and we work. The last and mightiest 
evangelization must be followed by judgments equally great in 
power. 

The Reformation came from a mere restraint upon the world 
power merely permitting the sealing of God's servants and a re- 
placement of the ark in its place. In this state we saw three 
mighty forces in the field. But here is a picture of the world 
powers having run their course, and having destroyed the Baby- 
lon they once served, are now themselves brought under the will 
of the Lord and working with the saints in the regeneration. 

The rebuilding of the temple and the replacement there of 
the two witnesses in their places acted as the cause and the inde- 
12 



178 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

pendence of governments from the locust power, gave the oppor- 
tunity for increase and spread of the light of the truth. But here 
we meet conditions differing from those of the Reformation as 
they differed from the dark ages, or as the dark ages differed 
from the idealism of the first evangelization. In the view just 
taken of the evangels we see not a permissive attitude as in the 
Reformation, sealing in the forehead as if by sufference of the 
enemy and in a subordinate position, but the messengers of 
Christ are aloft on high in mid-heaven, and flying from nation 
to nation among all tribes and tongues and peoples, etc., preach- 
ing above the housetops boldly, openly and triumphantly. 

Now we see the world powers in new relations to the church. 
That is at a time yet to come, and upon the borders of which I 
think we now stand, the world powers will have come to their 
third estate, and will help the church in causing the wilderness 
to blossom as the rose, and this mighty cooperation will efface for 
the time the distinction so that none can see which is temple of 
incense from the temple of justice and humanity. 

The world that knew not God, the world that crucified the 
Little Lamb, and that banished this most beloved exile is to come 
into accord with his purposes, and in consonance with his church, 
till the church has lost its distinguishing characteristics. To the 
first church the world powers was a red dragon, a bloody 
murderer and slew the Lamb and his followers; in the second 
they stood in a permissive and tolerant attitude, but in the third 
and last they themselves gave to the shining, jeweled angels of 
light from their own hand the bowls of God's wrath that shall 
completely "bruise the serpent's head." But before this last con- 
dition can be had there is to be a reckoning of accounts between 
the world powers and their former liege, the king and kingdom 
of the locusts and also another one with the followers of the 
Little Lamb. World powers that lend themselves to the will of 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 179 

man as against the will of God are at enmity with God and with 
the Lamb, who seeks dominion over them in love and mercy 
guided by justice. 

The close relation of the protestant governments to the Ref- 
ormation is full of suggestion as related to this wonderful story 
of the Cloth. As these were closely connected in their separation 
from the locust kingdom, they have continued in close relations. 
They each took one full step from that power. The governments 
have assumed in the main a position of toleration toward all with- 
out regard to former or present differences in religion. In our 
own America at least, protestantism is so closely allied to political 
and commercial power that the churches are a sort of reflex or 
image, so far as public and organized immorality is concerned; 
and in those cities where the locusts have the power the state of 
things is far worse. Even upon such a question as the licensing 
instead of suppressing of gambling and liquor-dealing, etc., by 
government there is no practical difference between the church 
and the state. It has been declared that in every state where the 
liquor power demands high license, low license, or local option 
the great parties in politics accept the policy, and that the 
churches in these several States generally permit the same policy 
at least by refusing to maintain discipline over their offending 
members. If this is true in any degree it is a damaging fact 
against the close and hurtful connection of the church with the 
reigning world power. Here is a present state of things which 
from a study of the Golden Cloth shows ours to be an intermed- 
iate stage and transitory in its very nature. It is reflection upon 
such facts that leads one to expect very great changes. For it is 
manifest that nothing like a millennium can ever be had while 
the church is adulterously following the world powers, to do or to 
permit the worst of evils to society. Governments in the toes of the 
image may not possess great governing powers, but such as they 



i8o MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

have cannot be used to abet crimes upon society or under any 
pretense permit them for a money consideration. It is here 
written in plain Greek upon this Golden Cloth that when the new 
evangel shall proclaim, he will say : "Babylon is fallen! is fallen!" 
twice. It fell first with the Reformation and secession of gov- 
ernments from its power. But it must fall again and in America, 
at least, it seems to be getting ready for it. Now the world 
powers, it is declared, will do this, completely destroying it, and 
the fact is here dramatized where one of four world creatures that 
has six wings and is all composed of eyes is seen to take part, and 
the exile tells us: One of the four living creatures we saw 
around the throne in the millennium "gave unto the seven angels 
seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever 
and ever." The world powers are to act with the church of God 
in visiting his judgments upon all the wicked institutions of the 
world, and is so represented here. We stand at this hour in that 
middle compromised and uncertain state resting upon an 
armstice. 

There is a feeling at this hour that the world stands upon the 
brink of a mighty crater. The state is too religious to oppress any 
sect, and the sects are too worldly to convert government into 
Christian statehood. The people afraid of their rulers, and, as al- 
ways, the rulers afraid of the people; painful hesitancy! The 
perturbed condition of the nations; their instability; the obstruc- 
tion of obsolete things once regarded as indispensable further- 
ances; the discontent; the new agencies of power, speed and fa- 
cility in every direction; the close alliances of nations once 
strangers and far away; the strange positions and transpositions 
of the affairs of the world at this moment are all signs of ap- 
proaching changes. Crime, too, is organizing, and all seem to 
feel we must meet in some final contest the inevitable settlement 
of old accounts. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 181 

The present denominations, surviving from their first and well 
begun work, are obsolete as to the new and inevitable conditions 
of the world. Their early work created improved conditions 
which, in their later state, they are in no condition to meet and 
to forward. The malign conditions of the world powers require 
a new alignment of Christian forces that will compel government 
to be a praise to them that do good and a punishment to them 
that do evil. 

We are entering upon the third estate of the world history, and 
the wondrous aspect of affairs is full of possibilities. The im- 
proved methods for travel and for the spread of intelligence, to- 
gether with the great awakening of the human mind throughout 
the world, offer the opportunities that should awaken and arm for 
the fray the entire Christian world as never before. 

His church cannot rest with having simply effected a divorce 
of itself and of the world powers from Babylon, any more than 
the world powers can rest with this half measure. 

The world powers are to wheel into an attitude of hostility to 
medieval political ecclesiasticism, and God's people are to form in 
line to send out the angels of truth to accomplish their part 
through the testimony of the Little Lamb. And with this same 
sword of truth are to stand up against the world powers to con- 
vert governments into Christian statehood and Christian com- 
merce into Christian brotherhood, till no flag shall float over a 
slave, nor slavemaker of any kind; nor shall any ship bear as com- 
merce that which destroys life or degrades character. 

The author of this work put forth in the public prints a few 
months ago, as a proposed offset to organize crime and organized 
consenting to crime, the following: — 

White Star Pledge — " Whatever destroys human life or 
degrades human character, shall not be licensed in government, 
transported in commerce, nor fraternized in the church, etc." 



182 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

There is a brighter day ahead, the last best state of the world. 
We are nearing the last days of the great tribulation to be followed 
by the Regeneration. With dogma, ritualism and rationalism, 
etc., as forms of religion forever abolished and great, free Chris- 
tian men and women following the Little Lamb whithersoever he 
goeth, keeping his commands freely and intelligently, with no 
interference by any earthly authority; the laws of state being ad- 
ministered on the all comprehensive plan of "love the Lord, thy 
God, with all thy mind, might and strength, and thy neighbor as 
thyself," what a glory envelops the thought. 

We noticed that one of the living creatures gave the seven 
bowls of wrath to the seven temple angels, that is, to the church 
and the church accepted. They are friends, are in a common 
cause to purify the earth. The church has broadened her mission 
to saving the world, and the world powers now lend their aid. 
They are friends, because the world now walks by the will of 
God and not by the will of man. But what does the bowls con- 
tain? The wrath of God upon all the wickedness of the earth, 
upon all ungodly institutions of the earth, upon the very foun- 
dations and sources of them. The church can afford it now. The 
kingdom of men is become the kingdom of God and of the Little 
Lamb. He now reigns on all thrones, in all municipalities. 
Friendship with a regenerated world does not corrupt, but helps 
and purifies the church. "Old things have passed away. Behold, 
I create all things new." 

A great voice out of the temple said to the angels: "Go ye 
and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth. 
And the first went and poured his bowl into the earth and it be- 
came a noisome sore, etc." The pattern of this judgment rests 
upon the plagues sent upon Pharoah. The world powers are the 
Egypt to be destroyed, etc. This judgment is upon the men who 
have the mark of the beast, and which worship his image. How 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 183 

strange and cheering to see the new church outgrown the child- 
hood days of its merely negative, protestant and permitted exist- 
ence now in its manhood and conquering state, facing its enemies 
illumined with vast intelligence, and the world powers now con- 
verted, now by her side, helping to purify the sources of sin, etc. 

THE SECOND BOWL. 

"The second poured out his bowl into the sea. ,, That is, upon 
the people considered as living in their sins, and, as they now 
exist, selfish and compromised. 

The sea produced the Beast and all beasts from the Golden 
Calf of Aaron, till the present, wherever worldly idolatry casts up 
an image of itself to rule over man. The sea "became as the 
blood of a dead man." It will be death and rottenness to society 
to live under the old conditions when the new conditions prevail. 

THE THIRD BOWL. 

"And the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and 
fountains of the waters and it became blood." "Light breaking 
upon the East (fountains and rivers);" judgments will follow. 
Mahomed and the East come in for judgment in this third bowl. 
The bitter star of the third trumpet is the subject before us, and 
now judgment follows; and all their attempts to preserve their 
long, cruel reign of bitterness come to an end. Their conduct 
of late seems to indicate the time is near. 

Mightier nations that have overflowed the West, must turn 
back upon the East, both with Christian missions and to appoint 
protectorates over the imbecile nations and administer the affairs 
of the world on the principles of humanity taught by the Christ. 
The Sultan's power must be utterly crushed by Western nations. 
Commerce must be subordinated to the good of man and purged 



184 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

of the disgrace of opium and liquor, etc. The weaker peoples, as 
the Armenians, will be as safe as the powerful. At this point, the 
angel of the waters speaks: "And I heard the angel of the waters 
saying: Righteous art thou which art and which wast, thou holy 
one, because thou didst thus judge, for they poured out the blood 
of saints and prophets and blood hast thou given them to drink. 
They are worthy." The angel of the waters represents the people 
redeemed; the sea of glass. They sanction the judgments upon 
the godless, oppressive powers. 

But with the pouring out of this third bowl upon the foun- 
tains and rivers that is in the east, not only do we have the sea 
of glass, that is, the people popularly considered, applauding the 
pouring out of this bowl, but the altar speaks also. We have only 
one suggestion to guide us in showing which altar is meant. 
"Yes," or "Amen," " O, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous 
are Thy judgments." That is the altar of sacrifice. "The souls 
that were under the altar crying to be avenged upon them that 
dwell upon the earth," were told to wait a little till their brethren 
also, who should suffer as they had, should be fulfilled." Now it 
is fulfilled, and their cry is answered, and they are satisfied and 
respond with the "Amen." 

Then we have within these three first bowls and their preface, 
the temple (the church), and the four creatures and the " sea as of 
glass" (the people), and the crowned martyrs and the world pow- 
ers, all working together for the same end. This is what we saw 
in the fourth chapter as the millennium returned and fulfilled. 

THE FOURTH BOWL. 

"And the fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it 
was given unto it to scorch men with fire." 

It would seem like punishment intended for the sun, but it 
was only to increase its power to scorch. The sun stands for the 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 185 

intelligence of the world in general, and this now unites with the 
fire of God's revealed truth that none can withstand. Here is 
another corroboration of the union of the world powers with the 
heavenly to burn out and destroy the sources of sin. Science, 
true science, now lending its light, all of it God's now, and it is 
helpful and good. Let the archeologists lift the last stone in 
Thebes, in Babylon, in Ninevah, and search the last crevice or 
musty grave of the Nile or of Damascus — all is God's and Christ's 
henceforth. 

If they that dwell upon the earth boast of their Darwins and 
Huxleys, we more, for they are ours, too, and the Asa Grays and 
Drummonds beside. 

We are looking upon times bordering upon our own frontier. 
Real science is our friend; so are all discoverers and workers in 
God's fields everywhere. All reformers and model builders in all 
fields of earnest, active search — thank God for them all. Let the 
visionaries and dreamers vision and dream their best, they cannot 
reach the glorious reality of that fruition lying before us; only let 
them do something, that they may call it theirs when it comes. 
Every convulsion in society turns up a gain for the Little Lamb. 
The carnal and brutal wars of the world are, by incidence, allies 
of our preaching. Things will soon be going our way, though 
dark clouds still intervene. God grant that they may be only 
clouds. Greatest, I think, among these is the approaching pente- 
cost,'when the Revelation of the Little Lamb, which God gave 
unto him, shall be shown and understood as God's most precious 
secret, kept for this age. What an irresistible flood of light when 
this last written, loveliest book tells us the simple and mighty 
story of the ages and their glorious outcome. Already sanitation 
prolongs life, already science can repeat not only the health laws 
of Moses for the body, but will soon repeat the decalogue on social 
and political grounds, and will not stop till it, too, will repeat on 



186 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

grounds of its own the words, " Love the Lord thy God with all 
thy mind, might and soul, and thy neighbor as thyself.'' 

THE FIFTH BOWL. 

"And the fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the 
beast, and his kingdom was darkened." One bowl made the hot 
sun hotter, and another made the dark throne darker. The 
enemy is both scorched with heat and imprisoned in darkness 
deeper; no contradiction, for remorse increases when the light 
grows brighter and the heat more scorching. 

They hide from the light, they call upon the mountains to fall 
upon them, but hiding places become scarce, and dens and caves 
in the mountains will bring a premium. The time is coming. It 
is soon to be that every criminal on earth will have his photo- 
graph in colors and his measurements in every rogue's gallery and 
police station, so he cannot hide. 

" They gnaw their tongues for pain and they blaspheme the 
God of heaven because of their pains and their sores." Alas! 
they were born too late. The dark ages are passed away, and 
they are strangers in a world of light — the reign of heaven is an 
awful pain to them. It is as uncomfortable to them now as it was 
for the saints in former times. "And they repented not of their 
works." 

They see it all, and live in a time when it is easy to obey God 
and hard to disobey, but they follow their own sinful way and 
hate God as they love their own sins. 

"And the sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river 
Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up that the way might 
be made ready for the kings that come from the sunrising." That is 
to say, as the river Euphrates was to ancient Babylon, the support of 
its commerce and glory, so are the corrupt powers of the world that 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 187 

upheld spiritual Babylon, and, as Cyrus drained off the river and 
made a channel of its bed for entering and taking that city, 
so shall the kings that come from the east, Christian kings, Christ's 
people, turn away the stream of ignorance that upheld spiritual 
Babylon, and it will fall and all its pride shall lay in ruins forever 
more. 

The angel of the Reformation was called the angel of the 
Sunrising, who conducted the sealing of the servants of God in 
the forehead. This is the same fact as to the source, only applied 
as wrath upon the enemy, and the saints are called kings. " He 
hath made us kings and priests unto God." They are kings now, 
and are represented by the jeweled angels of vengeance. They 
will completely undermine and destroy Babylon. 

What a heightened glory that those who were at first perse- 
cuted, and killed, and exiled, and who in the reformation period, 
which is the present, should still exist by mere sufference of the 
world powers in a moderated state of patienceand tribulation, 
are to be in that coming better day as conquering kings from 
the east, trampling down and distroying forever the reign of 
brute power and the scepter of divine rule, and holding the olive 
branch of peace and good will to man. 



CHAPTER XV. 
UNCLEAN SPIRITS. 

The river thus dried up, the source of supply to mystic Bab- 
ylon, black despair settles upon the Dragon, the Beast and False 
Prophet, and they emit three unclean spirits. 

Defeated in the last long attempt to uphold the wicked city, 
it is supplanted by the Christian kings and then the " three unclean 
spirits, like frogs, go forth to the kings of the whole world to 
gather them together to the great day of God, the Almighty; and 
they gathered them together into a place called n the Hebrew: 
Harmageddon." That was the field of decisive conflict in Israel. 
So this will also be a final battle, and there will be no retreat 
toward the dark ages and the bitter past. Another one of those 
little words are dropped in the very midst of the sentence that 
describes or signifies something of great importance in our pur- 
suit for the true meaning. It is an abrupt parenthesis: ("Behold, 
I come as a thief"; "blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his 
garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.") Here is 
both a warning of his coming and a promise. We behold around 
us, at such a time, what will seem to be the result of causes wholly 
within our own grasp. 

We seem to see clearly their origin and watch their procession, 
or development, and they seem to be but the laws of nature, pur- 
suing their normal functions, and we cease to give God the glory. 
We fall into supposing these things are of ourselves and forget 
God. Hence this sharp interjection of a cutting and piercing 
caution at this tempting moment of our situation. Its position is 

188 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 189 

full of suggestion, not only from its insertion in the manner in- 
dicated, but its position. Of the four series, the seals, the trum- 
pets, the evangels and the bowls, it belongs to the last; and of 
the seven last plagues it is in the last one, and at the last end of 
the last one. 

Here is a distinction we have been looking for. The other 
apostles speak of a day of judgment, while with the Seer judg- 
ments go continually forward and follow the light; he also sees 
and signifies a final coming of Christ, and hence this great cau- 
tion and warning. But the expression: "Behold I come as a thief," 
comes to us laden with a suggestion from its first use, Ch. 3:3. 
The church at Sardis had a name to live. It had the outward 
appearance and prestige that opiated the conscience and dimmed 
the light of the Lamb; and hence his awakening and inspiring 
words: "Behold I come as a thief." And here, when from the 
circumstances of the general subsidence of the world powers, and 
when the stimulus of opposition is removed and general lukewarm- 
ness may have settled upon believers, he repeats these words and 
adds to them the stinging additional words: "lest he walk naked 
and they see his shame." 

These last words bear a symbolic import of limitless power. 
It was to the church of Laidocea, the last mentioned, and that 
was neither hot nor cold, and to be spewed out of his mouth that 
he said: "Thou knowest not that thou art the wretched one and 
miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy 
of me gold, refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich, and 
white garments that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame 
of thy nakedness be not manifest." 

The three unclean spirits, like frogs, go forth to gather the 
world kings together for the great battle of Harmageddon. 

In times of God's mightiest manifestations, the Serpent rises 
up also to great counteracting exertions of like power. 



190 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

When Moses went into the court of Egypt to claim deliver- 
ance for his people, he was withstood by the magicians of Pha- 
raoh, who wrought similar signs to counteract the impression upon 
the king's mind. This they did three times, but when it came to 
the fourth miracle, wrought by Moses, the magicians gave it up 
and told the king that this one was from God, and they could 
not do it, but Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and so he held on 
to his slaves. 

As Jannes and Jambrese withstood the truth of Moses in the 
court of Pharoah, so do these resist the truth. When the Christ 
came into the world, there was a like satanic manifestation of the 
evil spirits that cried out: "Why hast thou come to torment us 
before our time." Here is the last time. It is the sixth trumpet 
and the sixth bowl of wrath and at the further end of it, and just 
before the seventh trumpet shall blow and end all. Here we have 
a state of things that show a rising in the power of satanic mani- 
festations also. 

Three unclean spirits import nothing as to being different 
forces, but the three refers to the three persons, all evil, from 
whose mouth they are emitted. It is a mockery of the divine 
trinity. Neither does it import anything as to whether they came 
out of the three mouths or out of one, as the word of God on pen- 
tecost proceeded from one, even Peter. The source is the thing 
signified. The law of opposites, as so often before, guides us 
here. This has the characteristics of another diabolical pente- 
cost, the going out of frog spirits, filthy, lying and deceiving. 
The former was an opening of the pit of the abyss, from which 
came smoke and locusts to devour and to sting, etc. 

This one is spirits, like frogs evangelists, that go forth mission- 
aries to the kings of the earth. The effect is heightened here. 
Not now to sting and devour, but to pretend to miracles. They 
are the spirits of daemons. They are gathering up the world 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 19 1 

kings to war against the Christian kings. They that dwell upon 
the earth are to meet them that dwell in heaven, in one decisive 
Waterloo. The devilish trio will use pretended miracles. 

On the side of the Little Lamb we have yet seen nothing in 
the way of instruments of warfare, except white colors and songs 
and prayers and harps and shouts of salvation and crowns and the 
blood of the Little Lamb and the word of his testimony. That 
word of testimony does not rest npon any kind of modern sign 
working. It rests, so far as any outward works are concerned, 
upon the mighty power of God in raising the dead to life, in still- 
ing with a word the tumultuous sea, and upon the word of fore- 
knowledge of prophecy. A faith that cannot rest upon these, but 
seeks new signs plentifully offered from all kinds of pretenders 
for its basis is a false faith, no matter from whom. It is impossible 
to rest a Christian faith on any modern signs or wonders, with- 
out its declaring in effect the insufficiency of those mighty signs 
which the Lamb and his chosen and endowed apostles wrought. 
To affirm these is to deny those, for he claims those as his own, 
and all sufficient. There is no close resemblance that the dis- 
cerning need be deceived. Every pretender to miracles, as a 
special gift from God, is justly suspected. 

Romanism, mormonism, spiritualism and other more modern 
isms, are claiming the power to work signs. It is a weak cause 
that seeks these imitations. Even prayer healing and Christian 
science, so called, and all the new movements that claim to work 
signs by the power of God, are to be regarded as deceptions, 
whether intentional or not. The assumption of such power is a 
denial of the supremacy and efficiency of the divine miracles 
and of the claims of the Christ himself; for he claimed this power 
was inalienable from himself and from those to whom he gave it 
as his chosen representatives. There is one fact never to be for- 
gotten, and that a very damaging one upon all pretenders to 



I9 2 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

miracles, namely, that they all take one and the same direction: 
the healing of bodily ailments. 

There were indeed within the early churches which had been 
visited by the apostles, persons who had received from them 
various gifts. One was that of healing, so that James could say, 
"if any be sick let him send," not heal himself, but "send for the 
elders of the church, etc.," to whom the gift had been divinely 
given. The apostle Paul has given us a list of the gifts possessed 
within the church. Among these are "the word of wisdom, to 
another prophesy, to another discerning of spirits, to another 
divers kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of 
tongues/' etc. Now is it not strange that none of these profes- 
sors to possessing divine gifts ever choose the speaking of un- 
learned languages, or the interpretation of tongues, or the dis- 
cerning of spirits, or any other of those gifts in which we can put 
them to an immediate test? It is remarkable that they all base 
their claims where they would be hardest to detect or to prove, 
diseases of the body or of the imagination, etc. 

To any one possessed of the divine gift of healing there is no 
reason why he should not restore a severed limb or raise persons 
from the dead as well, for God does not measure his special gifts 
so that one might restore a destroyed finger and not be able to 
raise and restore the whole body. It is the more pity if the devil 
can deceive people into these simulations, who themselves mean 
well. They are more dangerous dupes than those who sinfully 
follow the same deceptions for gain. Let all such ask themselves 
why do not these professors to wonder-working make claim 
where they can be at once put to the test? It is in the immediate 
view of these deceptions and lying pretensions growing rife with 
this age that our Lord adds this caution: "Behold I come as a 
thief; blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest 
he walk naked and they see his shame." Where can be found 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 193 

the person who followed these sign-workers of any kind that did 
not sooner or later practically forsake the Little Lamb? In any 
view of the matter all such sign-following is a denial of him who 
said "all authority in heaven and earth is given unto me. Go ye 
therefore and preach the gospel to every creature," etc. "And 
they gathered them together in the place which is called in the 
Hebrew Harmageddon." It was the mountain of Megiddo, 
the great battlefield of the holy land. That was the place of de- 
cisive battle. There Gideon and Barak triumphed by faith 
in God, and so it became the type or symbol of the great 
world battle against the Little Lamb. There God shall win in 
the sixth trumpet, in the sixth bowl. This is the patience and 
the faith of the saints. The seventh bowl was simply emptied 
into the air. And there came a great voice from the throne 
within the temple saying, "It is done; and there were lightnings 
and voices and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such 
as there was not since there were men upon the earth, so great 
an earthquake and so mighty." 

The universality of these events connected with these evangels 
and avengers, clearly point to a complete passing away of the 
former conditions of society. This is the condition described in 
the sixth seal, where every mountain and island are moved out of 
their place, and the chief captains and mighty men hide them- 
selves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and say to 
the rocks and mountains fall on us and hide us from the face of 
him that setteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Little 
Lamb "for the great day of their wrath is come, and who shall 
be able to stand?" The last seal, the last trumpet and the last 
bowl here combine upon a point of great disturbance. "Every 
island fled away and the mountains were not found." "And 
great hail, every stone about the weight of a talent, cometh down 
out of heaven upon man, and men blasphemed God because of 

*3 



194 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

the hail." The effect of the first preaching was hail and fire 
mingled with blood, the effect of the second or Reformasion 
preaching was lightning and voices and thunders and an earth- 
quake and great hail, but the third and last preaching and its 
judgments exceed all others by a mightiness laborious to express, 
" and the hailstones weighed each about a talent, ,, about two hun- 
dred pounds, or the largest term used to express weight. " And 
the plague thereof was exceeding great." 

At the Reformation, when the witnesses arose from the dead, 
a tenth part of the city fell, and seven thousand, a goodly number, 
of titles fell, but now the great city is divided into three parts, 
"and the cities of the nations fell." Here is an appalling totality. 
All forms of religions hostile to the Little Lamb go down. 
"Cities" mean religions, and they go down, and governments go 
down, and the Beast goes down, and rising into the ascendent in 
a clear sky is the "Little Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world." All hail to our King. 

THE GREAT CITY. 

The hermit has given us a series of supplements to the bowls 
as he did to the seals and trumpets. From the locust kingdom 
there came out two distinct forces, one of a pure and religious 
character, the other of a military character, and these were re- 
lated in some way in the exodus from the dark ages. The locust 
kingdom was clearly traced as a succession to the Dragon, and the 
Beast also received his power and authority from the Dragon, and 
these are one. The Beast ^vas both a world power and a religious 
power combined, and after the world powers withdrew allegiance 
they are treated here as separate powers. To show the relations 
which these sustained to each other we now see the religious or 
locust side in the symbol of a vile woman, a mock of the lovely 
bride of the Little Lamb. This vile woman is found in the wilder- 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 195 

ness whence the first glorious woman is said to have fled. That was 
the first church, afterward corrupted and disappeared. Here is the 
harlot seen as she comes out of the dark ages. She sits upon the 
Beast, that is she rests and rides upon, and receives favor from the 
powers that killed the Little Lamb and his followers. This is the 
same fact we saw in the mixed character of the locusts. When 
taken by himself the beast was shown to the exile with spots like 
a leopard to show his double character as religious and brutal, 
but now the division is made and the beast wears the woman's 
bad color, "scarlet," while he serves her, and also he has his 
heads covered with blasphemy, while the woman is covered with 
jewels and holds "in her band a cup of abominations," things 
despised by the pure of heart. She has upon her forehead a 
motto, "Mystery Babylon the great, the Mother of the Harlots 
and of the Abominations of the Earth." "She is drunken," and 
it is the blood of the martyrs and saints that she has been 
drinking. That is she hated them and slew them. This does 
not mean that she killed all the saints in her own name, but she 
assumed all the sin and abomination of the world powers, with 
which she joined herself, as every orte does who acts with any un- 
holy combination of men, politically, commercially or otherwise, 
to do that which he could not do on his own responsibility as a 
follower of the Little Lamb. 

This vile woman does not draw her own picture, riding a spot- 
ted beast, for she says: "I am a queen; I am no widow." It is 
our honest Seer that draws this picture of her to show how she 
looks in the eyes of the pure and true followers of the Little 
Lamb. Sin does not display itself willingly in public; counter- 
feiters and thieves do not make parade with banners upon the 
streets, neither would liquor dealers if they had not the law 
on their side. Our Seer gives us a description of this vile woman 
in character language that shows her in her true nature. 



196 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

He was moved to great wonder when he saw this tawdry har- 
lot. The angel guide said to him: " I will tell thee the mystery 
of the woman and of the beast that carried her." 

" The beast was and is not." That is to say he is a creature 
of time. He does not belong to the order of eternal things. 
"He is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into perdition." 

It was the Dragon, the predecessor to the Beast, that had ex- 
iled our faithful old Seer. That was pagan Rome, the red Dragon, 
which embodied and expressed the world powers as hostile to the 
heavenly, but the Beast came later and was spotted, heavenly 
and earthly in appearance which never improves the heavenly, 
but makes the earthly still worse, for a hypocrite is worse than a 
sinner. He "came up out of the abyss." That describes his 
origin and implies his character, and when it says he came up 
out of the sea it means that he arose out of the western sea, or 
the Roman Empire after pagan Rome had gone down like a 
burning mountain and quenched in the sea, and so identifies him 
with Rome, etc. It was out of this sea, this condition, that the 
Beast arose to take the place and power and throne of the 
Dragon. 

The Seer describes things by their inward resemblance and 
not by their outward appearances. Those who look upon things 
only after their outward and accidental manifestations will be 
greatly astonished to see that fade away which they supposed was 
permanent. "And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder 
they whose name hath not been written in the Little Lamb's book 
of life," who is not a being of time, but who "was slain from the 
foundation of the world." 

It will be an awful void, a dread and bewildering astonish- 
ment to all time servers when they behold the Beast how that 
he was, and having been present and seen, and known, and relied 
upon and is no more, but gone for ever. The time servers, " them 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 197 

that, dwell upon the earth, " are doomed to this chilling and ap- 
palling disappointment, and wailing in darkness; they shall seek 
the rocks and caves of the mountains only to find they, too, have 
gone; all has fled. Their fancied refuge is of the same stuff, all 
of time, all perishable and all fled away and, even the old heavens 
of which they said, there is the same sun my fathers walked by, 
and that moon the same my mother looked upon, shall be rolled 
up as a scroll and seen no more, nothing left, nothing of all they 
knew or saw, except the face, the gentle, loving Little Lamb, and 
lo, their shame and nakedness and consternation; him whom they 
offended and denied and slew. 

They cry to the rocks and hills to fall upon them and hide 
them from the face of the Lamb, whose love to them now is the 
bitterest remorse. The lovelier that face, the deeper their shame. 
Oh that he could but frown once and be just a little like our- 
selves, but his perfect love, what a pang! Oh that there were but 
one flaw in his obedience, to which we might join on a whole ac- 
cursed life of disobedience; but alas, he has not one. Oh that we 
had a patch of white linen that might relate us by one speck of 
merit, to him so all glorious. But alas ! alas ! He offered us a com- 
plete white robe like his own for the mere acceptance of it. All 
his honied promises he laid at my feet, a princely gift, and I pre- 
ferred the company of my own sins, and now the harvest, the 
harvest is gone and the reapers are at rest. I am unsaved. 

"Here is the mind which hath wisdom." The seven heads 
of the beast are " seven mountains on which the woman sitteth." 

That is, the " Beast " is now viewed as government express- 
ing the will of men as against the will of God, and the harlot re- 
ceives her support from it, and uses its power for worldly glory. 
These seven mountains are explained here to be " seven kings " 
or kingdoms. But as these seven kings, or heads, are all on one 
body, they are parts of the one beast and successors of the Dragon. 



I9 8 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

It also says that the ten horns are ten kingdoms and that would 
make seventeen, but there is no such number known to this 
Cloth of Gold and, therefore, we must find another meaning. 
The horns are attached to the head, and that means allied powers. 
And the heads are attached to the body and that means that they 
are different representations of the body, or that the headship 
varied and had a sevenfold expression. 

This we know to have been the case, for during the long 
continuance of the Roman Empire, it was at different times gov- 
erned by an emperor, by a king, by consuls, by dictators, by 
decemvers, by military tribunes and by the Pope. The " five " 
of the heads of this body had already fallen when the Seer saw 
it and one of them now " is," that is present, and the other is yet 
to come. These heads were successors to each other and the 
brute never had but one head at a time, for when the other comes 
"he must continue a little while." It could not have an imperial 
and a triumvirate head at the same time. There was a succession 
of heads, as also of the beasts, from the dragon and the locust 
apostles on down, till world religions be destroyed. 

"And the beast that was and is not," — That is, the beast now 
considered apart from the harlot, and as an expression of all the 
world power, " is himself also an eighth." That is, the world 
powers will continue to exist after they are divorced from the 
harlot rule, and be different from the former order, for we learn 
that they will turn against the harlot and destroy her. This is 
the first change of heart; (to cease to do evil,) and the next is to 
learn to do good. This order is an "eighth," or the full- 
ness and end of world powers. Hence the double signature 
of eight. It is not essential that we find literally seven 
heads in this beast, nor in the Dragon, nor that we find literally 
and exactly ten allied kingdoms, for it is the symbolic use that is 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 199 

employed by the Seer, and the numerical quantity is only inci- 
dental and in no way affects the meaning. 

So, also, of the "eighth." He inherits and succeeds to the 
world power as such, "and he goeth into perdition," carrying them 
all with him. 

The continuance of the world powers, after they have broken 
away from the harlot rule, are "an eighth;" that is, the fullness 
and the last of world powers that rule contrary to the will of 
God, calling them an "eighth," doubles the signature of four, and 
so shows us that they possess in general the same old charac- 
teristics — earthy. " It is of the seven;" that is, out of the seven, 
and much of the same stuff. "And he goeth into perdition." 

The Little Lamb must put down all rule. His contest is to 
that end, " that he might be a prince and a savior," " king of 
kings and lord of lords." 

The ten horns were ten kings or kingdoms which had not at 
that time received their kingdoms. These ten kingdoms subject 
to Rome have been a matter of some study by historians. Sir 
Isaac Newton thought the ten kingdoms were the following: 

1. The Vandals in Spain and Africa. 2. Visigoths. 3. Suevi 
in Spain. 4. The Allans of France. 5. The Burgundians. 
6. The French. 7. TheBritains. 8. The Huns. 9. The Lom- 
bards. 10. Ravenna. 

Other great names have found somewhat different results on 
the mistaken chase after something our Seer did not think of. 
The Roman empire is considered here in its symbolic definitions 
expressed in the dream which God gave to the first and universal 
head of all monarchies and all world powers, Nebuchadnezer. 
And the Roman which was to be the last of the four universal 
monarchies was located in the legs and the feet of the great im- 
age, and the ten toes of the feet govern the number of allied 
powers, and point to the fact that in the last the extremity of 



200 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

world powers they should be democracies, all equally on the 
earth, and not one above the other; and should, as compared 
with the one head of gold, be as ten equal toes, the lowest and 
basest considered in point of the rule of man over man. This 
is the meaning of ten as used in this book. We do a gross in- 
justice to rest the authority of the Cloth on our being able to 
verify mathematical quantities, which it does not have in view. 
We had seven trumpeters, but found nine angels taking part; so 
also in the seven bowls we had nine parts taken, but the seven 
held its own symbolic meaning all the way through. 

So here, also, Rome is expressed in the number ten, whether 
there were just ten allied vassal powers or not, the number of toes 
governing its signature. 

Our Seer does not make the certainty of his prophesy to de- 
pend upon the fulfillment in actual numbers. He does not in 
any way admit a question as to the certainty of the foreview. He 
does not make any pretense to understand it, but to be the clerk 
only and witness to write what he sees and hears. The fulfill- 
ment of his prophesy is not in any way to be used as an evidence 
had in view to convince us of its divine origin. That would ad- 
mit the possibility of a doubt. Such an admission is far below 
the Cloth of Gold. 

He that sitteth on the throne saith: "They are come to 
pass." They were not future to him. He saw them fulfilled and 
as passed, and only told us of them that we may know the mean- 
ing of them when they come to our view. 

These allied powers receive " power with the beast for one 
hour," a short time, and not necessarily all at the same time. All 
these have one mind, and they give their power and authority to 
the Beast. 

"These shall war against the Little Lamb, and the Lamb shall 
overcome them." The kingdom of the world, that is, the 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 201 

world powers are to become the kingdom of God and of the 
Lamb. This is to be the outcome shown, first on the Cloth of 
Gold as the fruition, etc. This woman seen in the wilderness, 
and so connecting her with the disgraced woman who escaped 
further persecution by accepting the two wings of pagan Rome 
to fly away from God's favor, is now seen sitting " upon many 
waters " to show that she has received the authority of the Roman 
Caesars, that she presides over the "waters," that is, the peoples 
where pagan Rome went down. Thus peoples, waters and the 
beast become one fact in this story. 

It is explained that "the waters which thou sawest where the 
harlot sitteth are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and 
tongues." This shows again that the woman, and the heads, and 
the horns, etc., were those who presided over or ruled them. 

But a great and mighty change occurs. This world, left to 
itself, changes its fashion at its own caprice. Its loves and favors 
are fickle, and it changes easily, but a worldly form of religion 
incumbered with infallibility cannot so easily change itself. It 
looks back and stands a mass of salt in mid flight to the safe 
place and refuge. It thinks of the flesh pots behind. 

So here these ten horns have turned away, and so, too, the beast, 
and "these shall hate the harlot and shall make her desolate and 
naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire." 

When divorced the secular powers hate her. Once loved and 
courted,, she is now despised. When a sinner corrupts an inno- 
cent person he hates him more than others. Once clothed with 
power, this harlot is now naked. Once imprisoning God's wit- 
nesses, she is now herself burned with fire. 

"The woman thou sawest is the woman, 'or great city/ which 
reigneth over the kings of the earth." The union of this false 
religion with the world powers, and then their separation from it, 
made these beastly symbols necessary to express it. 



202 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

So they unite the woman to them in the symbol as riding on 
the beast and then show them separated, so we can see both char- 
acters separately and distinct, as well as combined. In that way 
we read their fates separately. 

The woman riding the beast is a full view of the locust king- 
dom, and the separation of the beast or world powers from her 
is the army of horsemen let loose to make war. This largest 
possible view is presented us so that we can see both the powers 
referred to in their own traits and see the principles that under- 
lie them, so we may know them in all lesser but similar mani- 
festations. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE GREAT DIRGE. 

Here follows a picture of the desolation of mystery, Babylon 
and the solemn dirge at her demise. Her pride and arrogance 
and fall are the theme of this chapter Another angel from 
heaven, having great authority and who lighted the earth with his 
glory, descends. He cried, with a mighty voice, saying: " Fallen, 
fallen, is Babylon the great, and is become the habitation of 
devils and of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean 
and hateful bird. ,, All nations " fell by her fornication, and 
through her wantonness the kings of the earth and the merchants 
grew rich." Another voice from heaven was heard saying: 
" Come forth, my people, out of her; that ye have no fellowship 
with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." To remain 
with her is to partake of her sins and share her doom, because 
equally guilty. What a follower of the Lamb cannot do on his 
own account and responsibility, he cannot do in any combination 
with others and be innocent. This call to come out clearly states 
the reason to be that you " receive not of her sins, which cleave 
together even unto heaven." There is not at this time any great 
sins in Christendom that could succeed only as their abettors are 
able to unite with themselves for its accomplishment the professors 
of the religion of Christ. In all such cases, each individual is as 
guilty as though he alone did it all. All the blood of all the 
martyrs is laid to this harlot, because she accepted the world 
authority, and so succeeded to and exercised the power that slew 
the Lord and His followers. 

203 



204 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

On this principle, he who cleaves to any institution that 
destroys life or degrades character is guilty, not of the single 
part he bears, but of all the wickedness and crime of the institu- 
tion, of which he is a willing supporter. On this principle of 
accountability, every wicked act is laid to the charge of Babylon. 
It is the thought of a child that to kill many persons is more sin- 
ful in its nature than to kill one, or that a village that has many 
legal gambling dens, or legal saloons, or legal bawdy houses, is 
worse and more sinful than a village that has but one of the same 
kind, or that a church that permits many wicked persons in good 
membership, is worse than one that has but one such. The 
greater number does not alter the quality of the deed in the sight 
of God. 

The command of this voice from heaven is "to come forth, 
my people, out of her and have no fellowship with her sins." 
"For in her was found the blood of prophets and saints and of all 
that have been slain upon the earth." The mighty angel of light 
proclaims Babylon fallen, fallen, and the character of the mourn- 
ers who attend her funeral throws additional light upon her 
character and former associates. The double punish ment is declared 
for her, " the double according to her works, torment and mourn- 
ing." "For she said in her heart I sit a queen and am no widow; 
therefore, in one day shall her plagues come, death, mourning 
and famine, and fire, for strong is the Lord God which judged 
her." Then comes the mourners; first, the kings of the earth, 
partakers of her crime, shall weep and wail. Standing afar off, 
and looking upon the smoke of her burning and fearing for her 
torment, they exclaim: "Woe, woe, to the great city Babylon, the 
strong city, for in one hour is thy judgments come." 

Then the merchants of the earth, other former adulterous 
suitors, stand afar off, for the fear of her torment, and weep and 
mourn over her, saying: " Woe, woe, the great city! For she was 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 205 

arrayed in fine linen and decked with gold and precious stones 
and pearl. She has so much merchandise on hand, and no man 
buyeth her merchandise any more." 

Then follows an inventory of her merchandise offered for sale, 
but no buyers to be found. The enumeration will remind one 
of beads; rosaries, charms, crosses, bones, relics, confessionals, 
expurgatories, holy water, holy oil, holy wood, holy gold, holy 
brass, holy vestments, feast days, fast days, etc., etc. Here is a 
perfectly orderly inventory of the merchandise for sale. The 
first list is of wearing apparel, gold, silver, precious stones and 
pearls, fine linen, etc., etc. Then of furniture; fine wood, vessels 
of ivory, precious wood, brass, marble and iron, etc. Then comes 
the list of ointments, as cinnamon, spice and incense, etc. Then 
comes the list of edibles, wine, oil and flour, wheat, cattle and 
sheep. Then merchandise of horses, chariots and slaves, etc.; 
and, last of all, " the souls of men and the fruits which thy soul 
lusted after are gone from thee." 

This is a very great worldly display. A list of seven times 
four, world signature, twenty-eight articles, but no sale. None 
so poor, so mean, as to longer buy her wares, and the merchants 
join in a long, sad lament over her bankruptcy. Her merchan- 
dise in pretended goods of apostolic succession, indulgences and 
relics, all valueless now. 

The "shipmasters" also join in the lament, like the others 
"standing afar off, and they cast dust upon their heads and cried, 
weeping and mourning, saying: 'Woe, woe, the great city!' " 
From the point of literary excellence, there is nothing can sur- 
pass this mighty dirge in sublimity. 

The closing exclamation rises to the highest pitch: "Rejoice 
over her, thou heaven and ye saints and ye apostles and ye proph- 
ets, for God hath judged your judgment on her." Here follows 
a dramatic action of the greatest force: "And a strong angel took 



206 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

up a stone as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, 
saying: 'Thus, with a mighty fall, shall Babylon, the great city, 
be cast down and shall be found no more at all.' " To us it 
seems gradual, but we see by the lower lights. 

Next follows the sentence of the angel against her easy-going 
and indulgent leisure and amusement. "The voice of harpers and 
minstrels and flute players and trumpeters shall be heard no more 
at all in thee. No craftsman, nor the voice of the millstone, shall 
be heard any more in thee. The light of the lamp shall not 
shine in thee, and the voice of the brides and the bridegrooms 
shall be heard no more at all in thee." 



CHAPTER XVII. 
MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB. 

The harlot completely destroyed, we come now to the mar- 
riage of the Lamb. The marriage of the Lamb and " the great 
supper of God " are not separate, but united views of one great 
general condition. They present both the happy consummation 
of the long promised rest of the saints with the Bridegroom and 
the Father's vindication over all his foes, etc. The mind of man 
cannot now conceive, nor the human heart feel, the deep sound- 
ings of those triumphant hallelujahs. The unnumbered millions 
of our fellow-beings who have been deceived, betrayed, oppressed, 
persecuted and destroyed during the long reign of sin, is a spec- 
tacle of despair, serving as a background to make this festival a 
gloriously bright picture. It is the time to look up; the time for 
joy and gladness. The saints of the Most High, long in expec- 
tation, find their reward. Babylon is twice fallen. 

The shipmasters have each pronounced " two woes " upon her 
desolation, and now the multitude shouts two great hallelujahs, 
and the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures shout 
one hallelujah, and then the full orchestra all together shout one 
final and triumphant hallelujah of glory and praise. The first is 
" Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and 
righteous are his judgments. ,, "And a second time they say hal- 
lelujah, and her smoke goeth up forever and ever." Then the 
elders and creatures fall down and worship God, saying Amen, 
Hallelujah! And a voice came forth from the throne, saying: 
" Give praise to our God all ye his servants, ye that fear Him, the 

207 



208 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

small and the great." Then follows the voice of the multitude 
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, 
saying, hallelujah for the Lord God, the Almighty reigneth. 

The inspiration of all this praise is, "Let us rejoice and be 
' exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him, for the 
marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife hath made herself 
ready." The bride's glory is in her dress, for she hath arrayed 
herself in fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the 
righteousness of saints. Again the seer is commanded to " write: " 
" Blessed are they which are bidden to the marriage supper of the 
Little Lamb." Wondrous hope this, and made more sure by the 
added words, " These are the true words of God." 

There are seven precious blessings in the Golden Cloth, just as 
there are seven great songs, seven churches, etc. This one is fol- 
lowed by the added benediction of a pledge, " These are the true 
words of God." Matters were growing to a deep feeling with the 
seer. On hearing this, he was moved to worship. The scene 
approached him. He found himself addressed, and was moved 
to a response, and so he says: "I fell down before his feet to 
worship him." It was not his first experience, nor was this vis- 
ion his first. He had heard the sermon on the Mount of Olives 
about the end of the world and the downfall of kingdoms. He 
had been in the Holy Mount with the Little Lamb, where he saw 
Him in glistening raiment, and talking with Moses and Elijah 
concerning His death, and he had now heard and seen all these 
wondrous things. He had gone to the angel and had taken the 
little book that was open, and had eaten it and found in it bitter 
news, but now he hears a different note. The crash of music 
like thunders, and like many waters, and a voice from the throne, 
and the acclamations of joy and hallelujahs, and the marriage of 
the Lamb with the white-robed throng, everywhere stirring and 
happy, prepared him to bow and offer homage to the angel which 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 209 

showed him these things. What must have been his feelings 
when the angel restrained him from following his promptings by 
saying, " See thou do it not. I am a fellow servant with thee 
and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus 'worship 
God/ " This is his second mistake. The first was in supposing 
he was done with the vision when only half way, and this time in 
supposing one of his own brethren, like himself, to be worthy of 
divine worship. 

He then added these great words: "For the testimony of Jesus 
is the spirit of prophesy." All prophesy ends in him. " He is the 
first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning of the 
creation of God." This speech is made at the marriage supper of 
the Lamb, " Blessed are they which are bidden," for his promise 
is now fulfilled. The exile thought he must take part in it. He 
had received personal attention several times, but now he fell 
down before one of his brethren as he had seen the elders fall 
before the throne, being overcome, as Peter was, at the transfig- 
uration. 

WHITE HORSE PAGEANT. 

It is necessary to keep in mind that all the contents of this 
book were contained within the seven seals that sealed the 
book, and all that follows the opening of those seals is in the 
nature of evolution, or unfolding, and that the series of the seals, 
the trumpets, the evangels and the bowls or avengers, each bring 
us to the end of time, as viewed by the Golden Cloth, and that 
what follows is in the nature of supplements covering the same 
subject matter, giving additional facts, etc. The essential rela- 
tions of the matters given are perfectly orderly. We have to 
accustom ourselves to the method of the dual treatment, in which 
it is given. We have seen it in the two sides of God's covenant, 
human and divine; the two tables of the law, the writing inside 



210 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

and outside of the book, in the hand of Him that sat upon the 
throne, the double dreams of Joseph and Daniel, the double 
series of seals and trumpets and their two complements, the 
evangels and avengers, and the double groups that compose these, 
the personality and the impersonality, the judgments, positive 
and negative; the doubling of the twelve elders around the throne 
and the double as time and eternity, and the double view from 
which the same facts are seen — seen as in passing time and seen 
as present eternity, and declared "they are come to pass." Baby- 
lon's double punishment, double fall, double woes, etc., seem to 
bear some relation to this duality. We have had the marriage of 
the Lamb and the great supper of God with no lines that divide 
them, as though we, too, had now passed through the veil and all 
is now heavenly sided. 

We have had our eye upon another force since the Reforma- 
tion period. That is the great army of horsemen which was ex- 
plained to be the world powers let loose from Euphrates, that is 
from allegiance to mystic Babylon and presented in military 
aspect to connect it with the warfare that answered to the pale 
horse. The nations thus let loose to go to war are connected 
first with the downfall of Babylon, and second with the advance- 
ment of Society, and incidentally with the bringing in of the 
millennium. We find that their being loosed from Babylon 
caused her first fall, and that later, at a time yet future, they will 
give her another fall and will utterly destroy her. 

These world powers are called in the seventeenth chapter, 
where the analysis is fully presented, " an eighth " power, the 
completion and end of the world rule, already explained. When 
we first saw these protestant governments we noticed their mixed 
characteristics, part belonging to and connecting them with the 
locust kingdom, and part of a more enlightened aspect. Add to 
this the fact that they are to turn against the harlot and burn her 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH, 211 

with fire, etc., implies they will make advances in civilization. 
But the last of the bowls of wrath shows that every mountain 
government, and island had fled away " and the mountains were 
not found, and the last of the evangels shows that the vine of the 
earth is trodden without the city and the blood of the vine runs 
till it comes to the horse's bridle bits. This mention of horses can 
have no other reference than to the army of horsemen sym- 
bolically so considered, that is the protestant world powers. 
These world powers, them that are associated with the exodus from 
the dark ages toward the fruition, are to be destroyed as world 
power with all others, and to become the kingdom of God to ad- 
minister righteousness and justice in the earth. 

The victory of the Little Lamb over these, and the bringing 
of them under his rule, is now to be celebrated appropriately as 
was the victory over the harlot. The white horse, whose going 
forth from the opening of the first seal introduced by one of the 
four creatures, and which never reappeared again, is now returned. 

The same expression as at the first occurs: "And I saw the 
heaven opened; and behold a white horse, and he that sat there- 
on, called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge 
and make war." The ideal of the first seal comes back now 
as fulfilled. At that first entrance he wore a crown, but now 
many diadems. There he had many titles given to him but here 
he has another, "a name which no one knoweth but he himself." 
That one, no imitation can tarnish. He is the only potentate, 
" King of Kings and Lord of Lords," and this gives him a name 
above every name in heaven and in earth. 

He had then but a single bow, but now he comes from the 
battle of Harmageddon and from the sea of gore where horses 
swim in blood to their bridle bits, and his victories are trophied 
by the inscription upon his thigh, by his garments dipped in 
blood and his wearing many crowns, etc. 



212 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

The victory over the harlot was celebrated in white linen. 
She is a widow now, desolate, wicked and forsaken, and the beau- 
tiful bride, the Lamb's wife, is made ready and receives the bride- 
groom. The world powers that made war upon the Little Lamb 
are now prostrate, trodden in the wine press of the wrath of Al- 
mighty God, and the victor returns from the field of battle and 
celebrates his victory. His ensign is in his name which is called 
" The Word of God." In this sign he first conquered. When 
the tempter came to him he tempted him to so use his power as to 
discredit, his being both God and man. If thou be the son of 
God make bread to supply your human hunger." But he said: 
" It is written that man (as mortal, etc.) shall not live by bread 
alone." 

The second time the tempter tried him by asking him, since 
he would not use his divine power to assist his human nature, 
that he trust himself, his body, upon the care of the angels to up- 
hold him in casting himself from the pinnacle of the temple, 
quoting scripture, which the tempter has often wrongly used. 

But the Faithful and True replied: " It is written thou shalt 
not tempt the Lord, thy God." 

The third temptation was to offer him as a gift what he has 
been fighting for these eighteen hundred years. He showed him 
all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and said to 
him: " All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and wor- 
ship me." 

Then said the Faithful and True unto him: " Get thee hence, 
Satan, for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, and 
him only shalt thou serve." " Then Satan left him and angels 
came and ministered unto him." 

His victory over Satan is now complete. The world and its 
glory, which was offered to him if he would but bow down to its 
wicked prince, he has at last conquered. Eighteen hundred 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 213 

years have now gone and other years must probably come and go, 
though they may be very few, but in the end he will have con- 
quered it. What a wicked power it is that holds professing 
Christians in bondage to the gaining of mere temporary results. 
How short-sighted the sneer offered to the upright reformer. 
" What have you accomplished ? " What a world of sinful tem- 
porizing with the great criminal powers of the day. 

" Get thee hence, Satan," I will suffer and die in ignominy; 
I will suffer desertion of friends; I will endure all you can in- 
flict; my cause may sleep a thousand years, but at the end of 
many centuries I shall reappear with an army of white horses. 
So here we have his reappearance, celebrating the overthrow of 
sinful world rule. 

His name is called " The Word of God." In that word he 
conquered while here below. In it he will conquer at the end of 
the ages. His followers " overcame by the word of his testi- 
mony." He now rides a white horse and, wearing a garment 
washed in the blood of his foes and with many diadems on his 
head, and out of his mouth proceeds a sharp sword, that with it 
he should smite the nations. 

And now, too, the armies, which are in heaven, all on white 
horses, follow him. Here is the wine press of the fierceness of 
the wrath of Almighty God. "On his garment and on his thigh 
are written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords." 

The. great pageant is followed by a great supper, and here 
considered as part of the marriage feast. But as the world 
powers and the beast and the harlot are always inseparably bound 
together in the contest against the Little Lamb, they are now in- 
cluded and are banished. The armies of heaven follow the new 
Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and where the great festival 
and supper is given, in which the flesh of kings and of captains 
is given to the birds. 



2f4 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

The angel that commands the birds to come and to eat of the 
spoils of the battle is described as "standing in the sun." 

"And I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a 
loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid heaven: come 
and be gathered unto the great supper of God." Standing in 
the sun signifies that enlightened state of the world when the vast 
body of intelligence of God's secrets, in nature and in revelation, 
have come into harmony and are co-operating as a totality of 
heavenly light, and the nations walking in it will see the former 
things passed away. And a great victory of the race, through the 
"Word of God" calling upon the birds to eat of flesh of kings and 
captains and mighty men, shows how common and low were all 
the former things compared with the new and glorious state. 
What a climax of climaxes, what an intense glory is contained in 
this lesson! 

The highest glory of earth, the human heart wished for was 
to be a king, a captain, a ruler; and now in the glorious land they 
are but food for vultures in comparison with the feast. So great, 
so blessed is the Great Supper of God. What heavenly food is 
this by comparison with which vultures may feed on the bodies of 
world kings! Not a triumph by a fall of the world, but the rising 
into glory to be expressed in so wondrous a manner that our 
scavengers should eat the flesh of your kings and princes. 

All that was valued as kings and captains and mighty men and 
horses and men, lose their distinction and are now fit only for 
vulture's food in common. 

" And I saw the Beast and the kings of the earth and the 
armies gathered together to make war against him that sat 
upon the horse and against his army. And the Beast was taken 
and with him the false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight, 
wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the 
Beast and them that worshipped his image. They twain were 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 215 

cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone, and 
the rest were killed with the sword of him that sat upon the horse 
which sword came forth out of his mouth, and all the birds were 
filled with their flesh. " 

The account of the battle here given follows in the order of 
narration the great supper and celebration of the victory. This 
is the order followed in the second half of the Golden Cloth. 

The heavenly side takes precedence in the order. The rever- 
sion of the order did not escape the thought of the author, for, at 
the close of the account, he adds: "And all the birds were filled 
with their flesh." This sentence clearly warns us not to think 
that another battle had been fought. But the double view has 
been observed, so it was the white horse battle in which the Beast 
and the False Prophet were engaged and defeated. The marriage 
of the Little Lamb and the Great Supper of God are thus united 
in one general view. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
BINDING SATAN. 

In the hour of his greatest humiliation, the Little Lamb in- 
formed the Dragon, the Roman power, that he could summon 
"twelve legions of angels" to his assistance, if he chose to do so. 
But he submitted to the sentence which Satan had now imposed. 
They violently seized him and "bound him" and took him away 
for trial. We are now to view a supplement to the general judg- 
ments of the world in which the Little Lamb is brought into 
direct conflict again with Satan under changed conditions, and 
therefore a subordinate part, as respects the whole plan is here 
dramatized, but of first importance. Why did the Little Lamb 
suffer himself to "be bound" and to be put to death and hidden, 
shut up from the world and sealed in a tomb? Is there no redress? 

The days of reckoning have come and there is an answer to 
all such questions awaiting us. "And I saw an angel coming 
down out of heaven having the key of the abyss and a great chain 
in his hand." This is not the star that fell from heaven: that one 
had the key to the abyss and is called "Abaddon the destroyer," 
king of the locusts. His having had a key of the abyss must have 
been a pretense. It was on that pretense he was able to keep his 
oppressed victims from suiciding, and there he founded his doc- 
trine of purgatory. Now an angel comes from heaven in a per- 
fectly orderly way, and beside the real key that opens the abyss, 
he has also "a great chain in his hand." And "he laid hold on 
the Dragon, the old serpent which is the Devil and Satan, and 
bound him for a thousand years." Here the second time the 

216 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 217 

Dragon is given his full number of appropriated names, "four," 
as specially descriptive. He bound Satan with the great chain 
and cast him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him," 
not for three days as had been done to himself, but for a thou- 
sand years. This conveys no further idea of the time than the 
symbolic use of the number ten will bear. Ten is not altogether 
a world sign. The ten commandments of the law, and the men- 
tion of the angels given in the millennial glory is ten times ten 
thousand, etc., and their appearing in this sign at this time shows 
there has been a union of opposing forces, and this is exactly the 
explanation; "that the kingdom of the world has become the king- 
dom of God and of the Lamb." A thousand years is ten times ten 
and ten times again and again. In this multiplication it is also 
"three." The numberingof the sealed multitude also had this 
same form of expressing three in it. We know, apart from 
any suggestion these uniting of numbers may signify, that it does 
mean the end of the world rule and the beginning of the heavenly 
rule. This imprisonment of Satan was "that he should deceive 
the nations no more until the thousand years should be finished." 
Deceiving the nations has long been his great business. This 
event does not possess the universality of the evangels series nor 
of the bowls^ nor yet of the marriage of the Lamb, nor of the 
great supper of God, etc. But it is of a more personal nature 
and relates itself closely to the judgment upon Satan, viewed with 
respect to the burial of the True and Faithful One three days in 
the earth. It also lacks the element of finality, for after his im- 
prisonment he will be given a short millennium of his own, after 
this he must be loosed for a little time. With Satan entombed 
and sealed Christ's saints will reign with him "a thousand years." 
"And I saw thrones and they that sat upon them, and judgment 
was given unto them." 

Now the heavenly ruler begins his reign over the earth and 



21S MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

his saints rule with him. Who are they? "And I saw the souls 
of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and 
for the word of God and such as worshipped not the beast, etc., 
and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." The 
great difficulty in considering these words arises from our bring- 
ing to them a body of imported ideas obtained elsewhere. The 
expression, "I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded," 
etc., that they "lived and reigned," at first strikes one as some- 
thing new and as occurring here for the first time. This is the 
mistake oftenest made in trying to understand this story. It has 
no such diversity of matter as the early and first readings of it 
seem to indicate, but it is marked by a concentration and unity 
that continually grows upon the reading of it. We saw these 
same souls living in the opening of the fifth seal. They were 
under the altar crying for vindication of their righteousness. In 
the supplement to the sixth seal we saw them and the company 
of the saved standing before the throne in white. This company 
includes the sealed multitude who start an exodus from the dark 
ages. Here is the strange fact already noticed that the seer both 
in his gospel and in his Golden Cloth effaces the distinction be- 
tween the saved here and the saved over there. 

"He that believeth hath eternal life." That is a deliberately 
spoken sentence and his treatment of the present matter as every- 
where refuses to answer to the questions our analysis asks of him. 
Not only under the altar do these souls live and cry, but they 
stand before the throne and they journey with a tabernacle here 
on earth. Those who serve him here on earth are spoken of as 
"them that dwell in heaven." We next see them standing with 
him upon "Mount Zion," and then upon the sea of glass, and 
then at the marriage supper of the Little Lamb, and at the great 
supper of God, and to say here that "they lived" adds nothing, 
but that living they now reign with him. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 219 

They have suffered with him, they are now reigning with him, 
and this includes all his saints living and dead. But the words,. 
" This is the first resurrection," have been relied upon to show 
that a general resurrection of the righteous dead, including new 
bodies, is meant. That there will be such a general resurrection 
and re-embodiment is not in any respect questioned, but only 
that it is not taught in this place. The reign of the True and 
Faithful One is here represented as beginning with his binding and 
imprisoning of Satan, and the thrones set are those who reign 
with him, for they have been with him in the great tribulations 
and patience, and like him, accounted as dead; that is, dead to 
the world rule, which is the subject about which every part of 
this book gathers. It is out of this great tribulation the resur- 
rection comes. The two witnesses were dead, and they came to 
life, and had a resurrection, and an ascension in this same sense, 
and the temple was raised up from being trodden down. The 
mere fact of this resurrection coming near the close of the book 
has also led many to mistake its true meaning. But the pattern 
on which this Cloth of Gold is woven will not admit of a patch 
from any other piece. It is altogether unique, It is not a part 
of any other writing, and leaves a curse upon him who adds to 
or takes from it. 

We are still dealing with problems in this world and connected 
with the Lamb, and the first resurrection here spoken of repre- 
sents our rising out of a dead and subordinate place into one of 
victory, and to reign with Him on earth. But it is added, 
" Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." 

So we had also " Blessed are they that are bidden to the mar- 
riage supper of the Lamb," and " Blessed are the dead that die 
in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the spirit, that they 
mav rest from their labors, for their works follow with them." In 
this sense of the first resurrection all the followers of the Lamb, 



2 20 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

living and dead, are included, and the idea of the dead coming 
to life to put on new bodies is imported from some other source. 
This one has strict reference to a resurrection that means the sub- 
jection of and rule over the world by the Little Lamb and his 
followers. 

The fact stated might include a resurrection of the body, but 
the words do not express it, and the great judgment to follow re- 
futes it. 

"The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years 
should be finished." 

The Lamb was himself dead to the world for twelve hundred 
and sixty years. His church, his beautiful bride was for that 
time "trodden under foot." His two witnesses lay "dead in the 
street of the great city Babylon, and they from all nations looked 
upon their dead bodies." But now they rise to life. The trod- 
den down temple rises, the saints possess the kingdom, and this 
is of a piece and part of the first resurrection. Babylon falls, 
and falls again. The merchants and kings and shipmasters groan 
two woes each for her, then the world powers also are brought 
into subjection, and the other side goes into prison and to bond- 
age, and shall stay there a thousand years as against forty-two 
months of the beast's reign, when they shall have a resurrection 
to temporary power, then to be forever defeated, and the reign of 
Messiah is merged into the Great White Throne that will reign 
forever and evermore. "And when the thousand years are fin- 
ished Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall come forth 
to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth. 
Gog and Magog to gather them together to the war, the number 
of whom is as the sand of the sea; and they went up over the 
breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about 
and the beloved city; and fire came down out of heaven and de- 
voured them, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 221 

lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and false 
prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night forever and 
ever." 

This is the last of the destroyer. He is destroyed. The 
beast and his false prophet, his agents, had gone before him. 
, The Little Lamb had imprisoned him, but his overthrow now is 
complete, for God hath judged him and consigned him beyond 
the power of ever again troubling the saints. The sources of 
sin and of sorrow are ended and the acclaims of hallelujah are 
doubled and doubled again. 



CHAPTER XIX, 
THE GREAT WHITE THRONE. 

THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

"And I saw a great white throne and Him that sat upon it, 
from whose face the heaven and the earth fled away, and there 
was found no place for them; and I saw the dead, the great, and 
the small standing before the throne." Here are both the marks 
of universality and of finality. 

The great White Throne, and not the mountains and islands 
this time, but " the heaven and the earth fled away" before the 
face of him who sat thereon. The dead, great and small, are 
there. "The books were opened, and another book was opened 
which is the book of life." 

Here are two classes of people and two kinds of books. The 
books first mentioned are plural and the book of life is a single 
book. And the dead were judged out of the things written in 
the books according to their works. 

"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death 
and hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were 
judged every man according to their works." Again the acts of 
God are put first by the transposition already noted, and the res- 
urrection from land and sea seems to come later, but precedes in 
conception the judgment which succeeds by the order on the 
Cloth. 

"And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire." At 
last all the wicked are consigned to the same fate. The beast 

222 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 223 

and false prophet and all who followed their pernicious ways are 
cast into the lake of fire. 

"And if any man was not found written in the book of life, he 
was cast into the lake of fire." Here is the general judgment. 
It comprehends heaven and earth, land and sea, and hades. And 
all classes of people stand before the Great White Throne to re- 
ceive sentence according to their deeds. No one is heard of to 
return. This is the final separation. Those who were represented 
as being killed with fire and with the sword that came out of his 
mouth, and, being trodden in the winepress of God's wrath, are 
again summoned and now r sentenced finally and forever. This is 
the exact counterpart to those who are blessed with having a 
place at the marriage feast of the Lamb, who are at the Great 
Supper of God, etc., but are now here also to have their name 
read in the Lamb's book of life and to receive their eternal 
reward. 

The earth and heaven and sea are now passed away, and we 
shall have a picture of the new state of affairs. We had a long 
general account of the rival city, mystery Babylon; we shall have 
a more detailed account of the city of the Little Lamb, the city 
of God, the new Jerusalem. Babylon's merchandise found no 
buyers. She perished this side the further borders of world time, 
and just over the line begins the new, the heavenly Jerusalem. 
What emotions filled his heart when the old seer of the Agean 
beheld what he is about to describe must be imagined, for it can 
not be told. With the Jerusalem he once loved and in whose 
streets the Little Lamb had walked sorrowfully and over whose 
sins he had wept, now perished, he sees another, vaster, grander. 
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven 
and the first earth are passed away, and the sea is no more. And 
I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, 
from God made ready, as a bride adorned for her husband." And 



224 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

I heard a great voice out of the throne saying: "Behold the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them and 
they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and 
be their God. And he shall wipe away every tear from their 
eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning 
nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things are passed away. 
And he that sitteth on the throne said: Behold I make all things 
new." 

"And he said: Write for these things, are faithful and 
true. And he said unto me: they are come to pass. I am the 
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give 
unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 
He that overcometh shall inherit these things, and I will be his 
God and he shall be my son. But for the fearful and unbeliev- 
ing and abominable and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers 
and idolaters and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that 
burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." 

Here once more the first in order comes last in place on the 
Cloth. But as the line between life and death is by the Seer 
entirely obliterated, so is the line between time and eternity; so 
that the line we bring with us here can only be proximately drawn 
from the character of the matter treated. 

We have had the heavenly view of the new Jerusalem as it 
came down from heaven and dwelt as the tabernacle of God 
among men. And this is followed by the militant or world- 
viewed city in which it is measured, etc. 

"And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven 
bowls, who were laden with the seven last plagues, and he spake 
with me, saying: Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the 
wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a 
mountain, great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, 
coming down out of heaven, from God, having the glory of God. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 225 

Her light was like unto a stone, most precious, as it were a 
jasper stone, clear as crystal, having a wall great and high, 
having twelve gates and at the gates twelve angels, and names 
written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the 
children of Israel. On the east were three gates, and on the 
north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west 
three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations 
and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Little 
Lamb. And he that spake with me had, for a measure, a 
golden reed to measure the city and the gates thereof. And the 
city layeth four square, and the length of it is as great as the 
breadth. And he measured the city with the reed twelve thou- 
sand furlongs. The length and breadth and height of it are 
equal. And he measured the wall thereof a hundred and forty 
and four cubits, according to the measure of a man that is of an 
angel. And the building of the wall thereof was jasper, and the 
city was pure gold like unto pure glass. The foundations of the 
wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones. 
The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third 
chalcydony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sar- 
dius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, 
the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the several 
gates was one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as 
it were transparent glass; and I saw no temple therein, for the 
Lord, God the Almighty, and the Little Lamb are the temple 
thereof; and the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, 
to shine upon it, for the glory of God did lighten it and the lamp 
thereof is the Little Lamb. 

"And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof, and the 
kings of the earth do bring their glory into it, and the gates 
thereof shall in no way be shut by day, for there shall be no 
15 



226 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

night there, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the 
nations into it, and there shall in nowise enter into it anything 
unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie, but only 
they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." The church 
is temporary. There will be no more use for it. It was repre- 
sented by the tabernacle while we were journeying toward 
Canaan. When we arrived, we folded our tent and merged the 
ark of the covenant and its belongings into the temple, and now 
the temple is real. It is the pattern on which all these shadows 
were made from Sinai to Patmos, and God and the Lamb are now 
the temple of it and the light of it, and the shadows all have fled 
away and there is no longer night, and the reality has come, and 
all sorrow has ceased to be; and all tears are wiped away. 

"And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, 
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the 
midst of the street thereof, and on this side of the river and on 
that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding 
its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the heal- 
ing of the nations. And there shall be no curse any more, and 
the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein, and His 
servants shall do him service, and they shall see His face, and 
and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be 
night no more and they need no light of lamp, neither light of 
sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign 
forever and ever. And He said unto me ' These words are faith- 
ful and true; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the proph- 
ets, sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which 
must shortly come to pass, and behold I come quickly. Blessed 
is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book." Our 
early impressions led us to look for something abrupt, like what 
we witness in the death of a friend who to-day is and to-morrow 
i$ not. But, though we have come to the ultimate several times, 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 227 

our story has each time turned back to supplement and enlarge 
what had been said, and we found nothing abrupt, such as we 
expected would occur. The seer does not see a judgment 
as an abrupt finality, but progressive. He does not see the 
Master coming at the end, merely, but in many visitations and 
impersonations. He does not see the end of this world, as we 
do, nor the beginning of eternity. Time and eternity are not 
set against each other, one ending before the other begins, as we 
see them, for we are now in heaven and have eternal life. 



COME QUICKLY. 

From the opening to the close, we have read in all seven 
times, " Behold, I come quickly;" or equivalent words, and have 
wondered how we could make these promises seem real and true, 
given, as they seem to be, at different stages of the time covered. 
First, their very recurrence at different points in this progressive 
story, should raise the question in our minds whether there is not 
a mystic or symbolic element here also, as elsewhere. 

Second, their being found so manifestly framed into the sep- 
tenary principle of the Cloth, like the seven blessings, the seven 
oratorios, seven churches, etc., at once raises them out of their 
lower or ordinary use. 

Third, the very facts of the seer's mode of conception of 
things already reiterated, amounts to a clear proof that these 
promises are subject to the law, the unvarying, universal law that 
governs this book. The imminence of his eoming is his contin- 
ual coming, as seen and understood by the seer. 

Once fix it in the thought that according to the Golden Cloth, 
the Little Lamb, seen by the exile of Patmos, is the hero of these 
past and present ages, and that He is to be seen in all its really 
great changes, 'and all becomes clear. This fact was clearly 



228 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

placed before our eyes at the beginning. " I am He which was, 
and which is, and which is to come. Write the things which thou 
sawest, and the things which are, and the things which shall 
come to pass hereafter." "Thou must prophesy again before 
many people." These and other plain warnings tell us all the 
way through that these facts are serial, that in their very nature 
they are continuous; that they are a part of the creation called 
the "new creation," and the outcome and end and purpose of all 
creation, that they deal with human society in its ongoings, etc. 

It requires no reasoning to show that these promises are dom- 
inated by the prevailing genius that has subordinated everything 
else to its own single purpose in this work. That view of things 
which represents eternal life in Christ, as being now in possession 
of the believer, and that sees judgments going on all the time in 
this world, also sees him coming in all the great changes in human 
society, looking to the consummation and outcome, which, at the 
opening of the story ispresented as the mark toward which all is 
to move. The limitation upon the world powers, the resurrection 
of the temple from the dust of ages and of the witnesses from the 
streets, etc., are great and notable instances of his coming and 
the assertions of his power, and the great choruses have sung 
these triumphs and comings in our very ears as we have come 
along the way, and we heard them not. They are dramatized 
before our eyes and we saw them not. A minister asked at one 
of our lectures: "How did the two-horned beast bring fire down 
from heaven?" "Read the title page of that book you have in 
your hand," was the reply. It was King James' translation, and 
he an English evangelist. 

It would be dull to ask what have we to do with these comings. 
His most telling parables and sayings were turned to this very 
point, that we should watch and pray and look for his coming. 
Many supposing that he meant his final and personal coming 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 229 

have missed an essential part. First, it is our relation to passing 
events, that is of first and highest importance to the disciple of 
the True and Faithful. Those who fell to beating their servants 
and abandoned the coming of their Lord, were those who could 
not see his constant manifestations in the events going on about 
them. This is not saying we should look less for his final glorious 
presence; but that is not the coming we are so often warned of in 
the Golden Cloth. Here we are warned of the imminence of his 
constant comings, and the warning has reference to our acting 
with a view to these, for in these he is. 

He is in these ages and their affairs, and he makes us his 
angels or servants to carry out his purposes in them by the light 
of his truth. He means, we shall be always ready, that we shall 
have no bondage that would prevent us from choosing at once 
the right side of every question that involves in any way the fun- 
damental principles on which his government among men must 
rest. It is, by looking afar off for a distant coming, that the 
evil one deceives us. He hands us a costly telescope to keep us 
looking off toward the stars, while he is stealing the world from 
under our feet. But the Lamb asks us to watch and to see the 
signs of his presence in all these conflicts. When his disciples 
pressed him to tell them the time of his coming, he gave them 
nothing more definite than that they could know by the fig tree's 
putting forth her tender branches that summer is nigh; and this 
very method of replying shows us the meaning of these warnings, 
that we should watch, that he is coming continually. Show me 
any question that rises in society and then let me see where 
worldliness, selfishness and timeserving stand; and I am sure that 
side is wrong and can not have my sanction. I can as clearly see 
the Little Lamb on the other side as our learned revisers thought 
they saw a Roman eagle crying woes against the world powers. 
It is the lack of heeding these warnings of his constant comings 



230 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

that so many, alas! of his would-be followers can be found in the 
enemy's camp. 

The true follower is an heir of heaven. He can not and must 
not be found training on the wrong side of any question that has 
in it the principles of his coming kingdom. This is the plain, 
obvious sense of this book. It is not a dream, not a puzzle nor a 
conundrum, but the most real and most practical of all books. This 
Golden Cloth has nowhere the hint that death ushers one into 
the kingdom. Its substance, its elements are here, and we are 
warned that he is here; and he is involved in all these questions, 
private and public, and that those who have understanding and 
wisdom, who are sealed of God in the forehead, will see their 
Hero's white plume leading, and will follow him whithersoever 
he goeth, and not be led out of the way by any satanic devices. 
No previous age was so full of opportunities as the present, for 
upholding the principles on which the kingdom of heaven is 
founded. The seer now tells his name in the last chapter as he 
did in the first, and says: "I am he that heard and saw these 
things, and when I heard and saw I fell down to worship before 
the feet of the angel, which showed me these things. And he 
said unto me: see thou do it not. I am a fellow servant with 
thee and with thy brethren, the prophets, and with them that 
keep the words of this book. Worship God." 

This is the second time the Seer has offered to do homage to 
the angel which showed him these things, and the second time 
the proffer was refused. During the progress of the story we had 
but little account of the presence of any one with the seer. In 
the first verse it is said that God sent and signified it by his angel, 
and now he reappears. The beginning and the close of the book 
have such close resemblance as to suggest a completed circle. 
There is a lowering of the highly figurative character and an 
approach to our common style. The angel guide is mentioned in: 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 23 1 

Rev. 1:1, and again in 22:6-16. 

The greeting, 1:4, and again in 22:21. 

The blessing on him that reads, etc., 1:3 and again in 22:7 

The time is at hand, etc., 1:3, and again in 22: 10. 

Churches addressed, 1:4, and again in 22:16. 

Fell at his feet, 1:17, and again in 22:8. 

Alpha and Omega, 1:8; and again in 22:13. 

Come quickly, etc., 1:7, and again in 22:20. 

The tree of life, the hidden manna, the second death, etc., 
that have mention in the second and third chapters, come back 
in the last chapters. So, also, the white horse, etc., giving to the 
book very much the appearance of being a circle or being folded 
together so the ends meet. The angel saying, "I am a fellow- 
servant with thee," etc., "and with them that keep the words of this 
book," would seem to indicate he belonged here in the flesh, also, 
and we again inquire whether this was not the truth, and again 
the oracle is dumb. The line is never seen in the vision of this 
book. 

Another apostle tells of a man who was caught up to the third 
heaven, but did not know whether he was in the body or out of 
the body. The Seer tells us these were not his own thoughts, 
that they were shown to him, that he did not know the person 
who showed them, that he mistook him, and that the angel said 
to him, "Seal not up the words of the prophecy of this book, for 
the time is at hand." 

Daniel was commanded to seal up the things shown to him, 
for the time was not yet. "The time is at hand " means that it 
is begun now, and is the current passing time till all be fulfilled. 
The seer disclaims authorship of his work in the most positive 
manner, but claims he wrote what he was told to write, what he 
saw and heard, except the seven thunders, which he was com- 
manded to "seal up." Twice he is told to command a blessing 



232 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

on those who should read the things written herein. The Seer 
represents himself as entirely passive. He was asked if he knew 
who those were arrayed in white, and he did not, but said, "Thou 
knowest, my Lord." He was told to take the little book from 
the angel's hand and to eat it, and he obeyed. He thought when 
he had eaten it that his story was at an end, and was told he must 
prophesy again, etc. His guide, after showing him all these 
mighty things which were to be fulfilled, then told him: " These 
words are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the spirits of the 
prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things 
which must shortly come to pass." 

"And He said unto me these are the true words of God." 
Completely absorbed and borne away in vision, the exile 
found food for his thought, but shows no sign that he understood 
the meaning, but rather that he did not, as he did not know where 
the close came, nor the order in which his guide stood, etc. He 
was warned against regarding his transport and vision as a mere 
dream by the angel's assurance that these things are the true 
word of God, and now we have only to look at their fulfillment 
as seen in these past ages, to assure our hearts beyond every 
doubt of the glorious truth contained in the first sentence of the 
Golden Cloth, " The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave 
to Him to show unto His servants." 

The mind that framed this book is not of mortal mold. 
Its range of thought is far above the genius of mortals. We have 
looked upon the clear, all-reflecting soul of Shakespeare, and into 
the splendid genius of Bacon, but nowhere, as yet has the human 
mind ever produced anything like this Golden Cloth — the 
mighty forecast of coming centuries placed in a construction so 
wonderful, expressed in language far above the capacity of man 
to conceive or set forth. The gems of sacred history, with its 
symbols, etc., are made to reflect light into new conditions of a 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 233 

thousandfold import. The richest endowed mind may find food for 
a life time between the thread crossings, where great lessons are hid- 
den. Not only in the lines and between the lines, and most at the 
crossing of the lines, are the rich treasures of divine truth stored. 
The veil of the temple, which was rent from top to bottom when He 
left the flesh and ascended to the spirit world, is the Cloth on the 
two sides of which are embroidered, as Moses engraved on stone, 
the will of God and the presence of Christ in these centuries. 
How perfectly are they imaged there! That rend in the veil has 
never been closed. Between the groups of three and four which 
spiritually separate heaven and earth in all the five serials, we can 
see through it, and at death we pass through, as did our Leader. 
It is this perfect construction of the Cloth that signifies and assures 
us of the great truths here conveyed. The common version, 
which makes the seer of Patmos say: " and I stood upon the sand 
of the sea," and the new revision, which says, /'an eagle was seen 
flying through heaven and proclaiming woes upon them that 
dwell on the earth," are enough, either of them alone, to make 
the understanding of the book almost if not entirely impossible, 
so perfect is its construction. It was on the ground of this per- 
fect structure, as essential to its interpretion, that it closes with a 
curse upon him who should add to, or take from, this book: "I tes- 
tify to every man who heareth the words of the prophecy of this 
book, If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him 
the plagues written in this book: and if any man shall take away 
from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away 
his part from the tree of life and out of the holy city, which are 
written in this book. He that testifieth these things saith: Yea, I 
come quickly: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" 



234 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

THE ENEMY. 

On the side of the enemy, as shown in this story of the con- 
test of ages, there is not one redeeming feature, such as our great 
writers have allowed him. There is not in the human heart one 
vestige of respect for the utterly base character of the enemy of 
the Little Lamb. He is the deceiver, the old serpent called 
!Satan and the Devil, the accuser of the brethren. He is fallen, 
Jhe is the angel of the pit of the abyss; his kingdom is opened 
with the smoke as from a great furnace; his apostles devouring 
locusts. His name is Apollyon, the destroyer. He lurks to 
devour the infant church as soon as it is born, and with his tail 
he draws to his greedy mouth the stars or leaders of the Christian 
cause. He issues a flood of water from his mouth to carry away 
the holy woman. He is a coarse, monstrous being with seven 
heads and ten horns, with mock crowns, and his successor has 
feet like a bear and is spotted like a leopard, and has a powerful, 
blasphemous mouth, out of which also there issues unclean spirits, 
like frogs. His followers are without discernment. They are over- 
religious in their way. They worship the Dragon for bestowing his 
power on the beast, and worship the beast for receiving it. They 
are foolish to take the Dragon at his own estimate. They worship 
him for qualities exactly opposite. His virtues are sham. They 
have no wisdom. They receive his trademark in their hand or 
forehead, no matter which, for the head and hand are of the same 
unthinking stuff. They are Balaamites and Jezebelites, and their 
church the synagogue of Satan. They are the victims of his 
, coarse cunning and greed and food for his locusts. They are fes- 
tive and glad when they think God's witnesses are dead, and are 
frightened when they come to life. They do not know that 
God's witnesses cannot be killed, but live on. They persecute 
rthe innocent and pure of heart. They are astonished and 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 235 

wonder when the beast they worship is no more. They are not 
measured or numbered or recorded or sealed or permitted to 
enter the holy city, but are without and are trodden down in 
the wine-press of God's wrath, as they trod down the holy city 
under their feet till their blood, in the figure of an earth yine, runs 
a sea sixteen hundred furlongs in extent, where horses swim to- 
their bridle bits. Their sins cleave together unto heaven, and 1 , 
they are estimated by bulk or by acres, etc. They have not un- 
derstanding, are not wise claiming liberty, they are owned and 
marked and driven as cattle — are deceived by appearances. They 
dread the face of the Little Lamb and seek to flee from him and' 
to hide in dens and caves of the mountain, only to find that the 
mountains themselves have fled away and hiding-places all gone- 
They are fickle and changeable, giving power to the harlot, and 
then withdrawing it and turning against her. All they ever 
prized becomes valueless and their merchandise worthless. 
Through all the great changes in the world where the Little 
Lamb manifests himself they remain proud, self-willed and im- 
penitent. They repent not, they remain filthy still; they persist 
against increasing light and love; they serve the Dragon and are 
overthrown. Their dead bodies mingle with the flesh of horses, 
and the vultures of the air eat them alike. Short-sighted, stub- 
born, ungrateful, pretending wisdom, pretending even religion, 
they hate the Little Lamb and are cast into the lake of fire where 
are the Dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, to be destroyed 
forever from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power. 
"He that is unrighteous let him do unrighteousness still, and he 
that is filthy let him be made filthy still, and he that is righteous 
let him be made righteous still, and he that is holy let him be 
made holy still." "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is 
with me to give to every man according as his work is." "I am 
the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning 



236 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

and the end. Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they 
may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates 
into the city. Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the 
fornicators and murderers and idolators, and whosoever loveth 
and maketh a lie. ,, 

THE PROMISES. 

The promises are to the righteous, "to him that overcometh ,, 
— the blessed that wash their robes and make them white in the 
blood of the Little Lamb. These have understanding and are 
wise. They are sealed in the forehead and are presented with 
a new name engraved in a white gem which no one knows or 
ever can know but he that receives it. He expects a great treas- 
ure and is watchful and vigilant. He notes all the questions that 
rise in society and looks to see which side the Little Lamb is on, 
and does not follow the coarse worldling, the self-seeker, the 
satanic politician. The true image of Christ's love and wisdom 
is always before his eyes for an ensign, and he can not be drawn 
by the serpent's tail, nor charmed by his spots, nor frightened by 
his horns. 

All the tender promises of the Little Lamb are to him pre- 
cious, and by them he "overcometh." Overcoming clearly shows 
we are in the patience and tribulation and kingdom with him. 
The holy dreams of the young convert, so soon and so often 
plunged into the cold realities of this lower, selfish world; the 
wing of hope, so often cut by the darts of the wicked; his pure 
love, as from a fountain so soon resisted; his heavenly fire, so often 
quenched by the coarse and thoughtless — all this and more Christ 
remembers and knows, and bids us watch and pray, and calls us 
blessed and promises all his treasures. 

Through all repulses the ideal, the heavenly vision of faith 
leads on its quenchless, its boundless life as from a fountain from 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 237 

the inner self, and receives back no poison from the darts of the 
wicked- — no taint, no coldness from the ten thousand rebuffs — but 
rises again to heights where malice cannot reach, and so triumphs, 
so overcomes, to sit with him upon his throne. 

The wealth of promises he makes to him that overcometh ex- 
ceeds all fable, transcends imagination itself. Not the dream of 
childhood's flowing fancy on its outward wing can touch the up- 
ward limit of its glory. The bright and morning star, that draws 
our attention from all the constellations by its singular beauty, he 
promises to give to him that overcometh, a place on his own 
throne far above the glory of sun and sky, to be presented in per- 
son to his Father "to him that overcometh. " Clothed with a price- 
less garment, the gift of heaven, as white as snow and as white as 
wool; woven of the threads of sacrifice, in love's service untarnish- 
able; a crown of gold for his head which declares to all that over 
this cold, selfish world, over it all, as though no one else had 
shared in it, he is victor crowned with honor. In never-ending 
joy his harp and new song are heard in all the happy fields and 
gardens of the Lord, amid everlasting balm and beauty. 

That song he will sing no one else among the millions of re- 
deemed can ever learn, because it is his own sweet experience, and 
is unlike every other. It will be his joyous possession and pass- 
port to all the worlds where one star differeth from another. 

He wears the glory of God and walks now, an immortal being, 
above the hilltops, but still sees and knows that it is himself in- 
deed, with nothing lost but that which he desired to have taken 
away. 

Upon his passport is written the name of his Father and of 
the Little Lamb; unchallenged amid all the outlying posts of 
heavenly space where he goes, unhindered. 

The new Jerusalem, that came down out of heaven as a beau- 
tiful bride, is his city. The seal of God is in his forehead and 



238 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

he can not go astray nor be lost from the presence and the love 
of God in all his dominions. He shall be trusted as faithful, shall 
be "a pillar in the temple of my God," and shall sit on the throne 
and shall rule the nations; shall eat of the tree of life in the para- 
dise of God and of the hidden manna. 

"He shall not hunger nor thirst, nor grope in darkness, but 
shall dwell in his tent, so no heat of the sun can strike him, no 
night ever overtake him. The shepherd shall lead him to the 
fountains of water of life. He has eternal life now begun and is 
already saved, and God is so near to him he can wipe away the 
very tears from his eyes. The Seer says: "I am your brother and 
the angel guide says, I am your brother, and the Spirit- and the 
bride say, Come, and he that heareth let him say come, and he 
that is athirst let him come; he that will let him take of the water 
of life freely." He is to be a guest at the great supper of God, 
where the delights surpass all power of language to express — where 
love and joy are so excellent as to throw an eternal contempt on 
all the wretched glory of earth. The kings of the earth and the 
mighty men are but food for vultures by comparison with this 
great supper and marriage of the Lamb. Who promises all these 
fabulous gifts? He who himself overcame. He whom this world 
crucified and killed, and which he, in dying, conquered. He who 
has never left us, but has walked down these centuries, wrapped 
in the mantle of a seamless cloth, and who comes again, and a last 
time, by his own mighty presence. "Behold, I come quickly. 
My reward is with me." Blessed overcomer, contented in sorrow, 
at home in exile, happy in misery rich when poor. Above the 
reach of envy, of scorn, of folly, of malice, there steadily hold on 
thy faithful, loving way, for he is faithful who said: "I will never 
leave thee nor forsake thee." "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus," 
"The grace of the Lord Jesus be with the saints, Amen." 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. ^39 

THE TIME ELEMENT. 

All words of time and duration in the Apocaiypse are assigned 
to the same subordination, to symbolic usage, as other words. If 
we find that numerals are united to words of time, we have a 
double caution against their common use. Till we reach the 
eleventh chapter we have but two occurrences. "Ye shall have 
tribulation ten days;" and "their power, the locusts, was to tor- 
ment five months." "Ten days" must not be taken either as 
literal, nor as what is known as prophetic time — a day for a year — 
but the number ten has a meaning of its own. It is subordinate 
to the governing genius of this book, just as is seven, and four, 
and two, and twelve, etc. "Five months of locust life," also, is 
subject to the view within which the time of this book is viewed. 

It is at first difficult to conceive how words we are so accus- 
tomed to use with exactness, in this scientific age, could be used! 
otherwise, though we do know both are used as algebraic symbols 
and as alphabetic and xommercial signatures. Ten literal days'' 
suffering is entirely out of the question. In the locust group o£ 
ymbols, the locust, with his medley of attributes, dominates ini 
all changes and situations, so that five months must be taken int 
reference to the whole period of the dark reign, or forty-two- 
months. The life of the locust, being five months, is the basi s 
for the symbol and the time signified to be taken for its relations 
to the period alloted to the evil one, etc. That period or time is 
expressed as one thousand two hundred and three-score days, and 
as forty-two months, and as "three days and a half," and as "time, 
times and a half time." 

The first fact is that the "holy city," the Christian church, is 
"trodden under foot forty-two months;" 11:2. 

But the woman that fled to the wilderness, which is the same 
fact exactly, was to be "nourished there 1,260 days;" 12:6. That 



240 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

brings these two periods to an equivalence. In the lower view 
of the woman's absence it is said "she is nourished for a time, 
times and a half time;" 12:14. That is the same time, because it 
is measured by the same fact. It was given to the beast to con- 
tinue forty-two months; 13:5. That is the same length of time 
the church was absent, trodden down, etc. Thus are these dates 
woven together and are inseparable. The simple story is that, 
while the beast reigned, the church of Christ was trodden under 
foot and the two witnesses were dead, clothed in sackcloth, etc., and 
with their resurrection came the end of the beast power. It is 
not probable that we can fix upon any year in which, according 
to the view of this prophecy, the reign of the beast began. It 
must have been gradual, as was the apostasy. Again, it is not 
within either our knowledge, or a probability, that the church 
could be viewed as having expired in one year, and that the wit- 
nesses were in that same year killed, and the beast in that same 
year assuming his place as successor to the Dragon. As the seer 
views all matters from their essential relations, we, who look upon 
things outwardly, are liable to miss the point of departure and so 
run on a false survey. It is also to be remembered that the end 
of the world, in the view of this book, is not what our accustomed 
thoughts lead us to suppose. 

The end in the view of the story of Revelation is the victory 
over the world powers by the Little Lamb, our own personal 
eternal salvation being everywhere assumed, but not analyzed nor 
treated of as an end, or, better say, as the end of this book. We 
conclude that there were 1,260 days, taken at what is known as 
prophetic time, embracing the early middle and later dark ages, 
and that they were marked by the absence of the Church of 
Christ from the world and the imprisonment of his two witnesses, 
and that we do now know, proximately at least, the time it oc- 
cupied. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 241 

But this 1,260 days is more than what is called "prophetic 
time'' — that is, a day for a year. Notice that it is expressed in 
four forms — as 1,260 days, as 42 months, as 3% days, and as 
time times and a half time. Notice, again, that at the time when 
the beast's power is broken by the army of horsemen, or the 
loosing of the world powers from his power, it is said, "and the 
four angels were loosed which had been prepared for the hour 
and day and month and year," four words of time. 

With the downfall of the beast it is chanted, 11:17 : "We give 
thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, which art and which 
wast because thou hast taken thy great power and didst reign." 
These signatures of four indicate that a definite world period 
was known, and that its limits were fixed. 

The restraining of the world powers for sealing in the Refor- 
mation, and their being loosed from the beast and to destroy 
him, confirm these signals and show that the overruling power of 
God had set limits to the reign of Beast power. This is the only 
point where the time element has any recognition of value in the 
book, except the thousand years. In this case the mention of 
years as against the days and months of Beast time conveys an 
idea of great time. If we should reduce the thousand years to 
prophetic measure, it would give us three hundred and sixty-five 
thousand years as the time of Christ's reign upon the earth. 

We rather take it as symbolic value, and connect with the im- 
port of ten as a common or mutual representative number. The 
numbers three and seven and twelve are sacred numbers, and four 
and ten are world numbers. Four is a strictly world sign, and 
twelve is a strictly sacred sign. But seven and ten are meeting 
grounds. When three conquers four it will be the whole and 
complete seven, and so seven is prophetic of that time, and is ex- 
pressed in all the series, the letters, seals, trumpets, etc., etc. Ten 
is both the number of the commandments of the law and the 



242 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

number of the toes of the great world image, and the seven heads 
of the Dragon have the like coincidence with the sacred seven, 
and, as applied to the thousand years' reign, signifies that divine 
rule is now become earth rule — that the kingdom of men is be- 
come the kingdom of God and of his Christ for a great period. 
It is another dim prophecy of the glorious outcome to all this 
that the 1,260 days is the common multiple of all these signal 
numbers: 3) 1,260 = 420 

4) 1,260=315 

7) 1,260=108 

10) 1,260=126 

12) 1,260=105 

Thus are united in a common bond the signals which play ad- 
verse parts in the world's drama. These facts incline us to re- 
gard the 1,260 days of the beast's reign as we do the ten horns of 
the Beast, that is, as based upon and symbolizing a vital fact 
which is not materially affected by exact mathematical measure- 
ment, just as we saw nine angels introduced in the seven parts of 
the trumpets and in the seven bowls, thus sacrificing the numeral 
value to the higher office of the symbolic. 

The number two, as already shown, plays the important func- 
tion of signifying the two worlds or two powers, the heavenly and 
earthly, united, and in contest, etc. In the thousand years pe- 
riod we seem to lack the double view so helpful hitherto. There 
is now but one force in the field, and we have no other view to 
assist our understanding. The three has conquered the four and 
the seven; sacred peace and rest, which creation prophesied, 
are here. 

Also the ten commands now govern the ten kingdoms; all 
kingdoms. A world number and a sacred number become one. 
God is over all, and Christ has conquered his enemy and reigns 
with his saints. 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 243 



THE STORY. 

The theme of this most wondrous story is " I am the First 
and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the ruler of the Kings 
of the earth." 

This is what the contention is all about. Satan, who beguiled 
into sin our first parents, is the disputer. 

Having first tempted the Christ, seeking his overthrow, and 
failed, he afterward slew him, and destroyed and corrupted his 
followers, the Church, and then held almost undisputed sway over 
the world for more than a thousand years, and assumed to represent 
and so mocked the Lord, whom he hates. These are the two 
forces that appear first upon the field of contest, and after the 
extinguishment of the heavenly side by the earthly, the long night 
of apostasy and sin reigns. But an order suspending or restrain- 
ing the world power till the servants of God are sealed in the 
forehead brings a change by the Reformation. This is the reap- 
pearance of the heavenly power asserted under changed aspects. 
The Church and the Bible are born anew, as from the dead like 
their Lord, and a second Pentecost in substance follows. Later, 
we see the world powers in form as an exodus from the dark ages, 
disengaged, loosed from their bondage to a mixed or locust king- 
dom, and are free to make war, etc. 

They came out of the period of utter darkness where the sun 
and moon had gone out, and the stars had fallen. Here we find 
the presence of three powers appearing on the field of vision, sus- 
taining very interesting relations, and which include the present 
hour. The world powers that gave all their power to the harlot 
now turn against her and utterly destroy her. 

This leaves us for a time the presence again of but two forces 
in the field — the white pilgrims' army, the sealed and saved; and 



244 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

the world powers, now called an eighth, or the fullness and last 
of world powers, now weak like the toes of the great image com- 
posed of clay and iron, and divided into independent republics, 
and to be broken to pieces by the stone cut out of the mountain 
without hands. Then follows another change. The world 
powers that destroy the harlot are in their turn conquered and 
brought under the will of God and of the Little Lamb by the 
kings from the sunrising, the fully enlightened Christians. The 
wine-press of the wrath of God outside the city (which is His 
Church) is trodden down, and the horsemen swim in the blood to 
their bridle-bits, and the conqueror, the Little Lamb, comes from 
the place of slaughter with his garments washed in blood, and 
rides a white horse at the head of his army of one hundred and 
forty-four thousand that follow on white horses; that is, we 
learned, a multitude that no man can number, and they celebrate 
the marriage of the Little Lamb, and eat at the Great Supper of 
God, and rejoice in a four-fold hallelujah of praise. 

From this point forward there is but one force in the field. 
The great white field is now full of white horses, and all enemies 
subdued, and the plan of man's creation vindicated. In this last 
work the world powers are converted, and they assist the Church 
of God. They hand the bowls of God's wrath to the seven glis- 
tening angels that come out of the church (the temple) to pour 
upon the very sources of sin and rebellion the judgments of God, 
and so bring about the third evangelization. 

This is the end the story has in view, and there we find the 
great White Throne, and the final judgment upon every soul ac- 
cording to the works done in the body. 

There are many questions that rise to the mind, while reading 
the Revelation of John, which this wondrous work does not 
answer. 

These are questions imported from other teachers, or other 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 245 

scriptures, and which are so rooted in the mind as to cause a dis- 
appointment not to find them recognized here. 

The educated mind of the western nations seeks in vain to 
separate its parts, to analyze it. 

The purpose of the author lay in the opposite direction. His 
purpose was to unite all he touched into one central thought, and 
he uses no fact or reference that does not bear upon that one 
point. All roads lead to this, and he never loses sight of it for 
a moment. He denies us the right to separate them, as our oft 
repeated efforts have shown us our inability to do. He refuses to 
let us see them except at the single point where they attach to the 
story of his hero and illustrate it. 

He has woven together his facts in a most wonderful way; he 
has subordinated all to illustrate and illuminate his central theme. 
What he has joined together no one may sever and ever read his 
story. Our desire thwarts his purpose, and we must know him 
only through this chosen way. How unlike all our historical 
writing, where we narrate the disconnected reports that have sur- 
vived, and which have no visible connection, or, at least, no com- 
mon centre in this on-drifting world. 

The loved disciple has given us the true philosophy of history. 
The first chapter of Genesis has its last word here. It compasses 
the duration of time. The woman's seed here bruises the ser- 
pent's head. What was lost to us in the disobedience of the first 
man is restored in the Christ. 

The unity of God and of the plan of salvation are wonder- 
fully expressed and preserved in this book. The Father holds 
out the book and the Son receives it, and opens the seals, and re- 
veals the secret of the ages, and when the Son has completed his 
work the Great White Throne is set for judgment. 

The unity of the Bible, the Old Testament and the New, is 
carefully preserved in the two witnesses spoken of as "their 



246 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

body," singular number. The doubling of the elders about the 
throne, twenty-four, and the remarkable duality everywhere 
found, rest upon the Old Testament facts. 

The unity of Christ through all impersonations and of the 
Holy Spirit as with him sanctioning, perfecting, etc., is perfect. 

The unity of the Jews and the Gentiles, always separated in 
this world, is also made good in the believers from both sides by 
the presentation of the twenty-four elders about the throne, etc. 

But more remarkable if possible is the union of all saints, liv- 
ing and dead, in one army, one family, thus preserving the sim- 
plicity of the story. The death line is entirely effaced, and the 
slain martyrs and the living saints are presented as one army 
camping together and journeying toward Canaan, and as upon 
Mount Zion with the Little Lamb and as riding white horses in his 
procession, and as being his bride at the great marriage. We 
look in vain to find some mark, or sign, or hint, that separates 
the living from the dead saints. In our own minds we draw a 
dark, deep line between those saints on earth and those gone on be- 
fore, as we express it, but the distinction is not recognized by this 
book. "They all have eternal life. ,> They are all interested in 
what is going on here on earth and are looking with great desire 
toward its outcome, and are seen under one tabernacle rejoicing 
and singing together. Our own refinements stand in the way of our 
seeing and feeling the mighty power of the great outline which 
effaces our unimportant distinctions to give the greater effect to 
the true and never-ending. Every such refinement is omitted to give 
to this large and beautiful oriental work its own chosen figures in 
which to tell this beautiful story of the ages, and to fix and to 
hold our mind and our heart on that which is essential to our eternal 
life through the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the 
world. 

The judgments are connected with and follow the preaching 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 247 

the word and the testimony concerning his blood, and are seen 
as the negative or reverse side of the good news. Wherever duty- 
is made known and accepted, there is salvation, and where re- 
jected there is condemnation. The division is made here, and 
now, and the saints increase in love and the sinners wax worse and 
worse and repent not for all that increasing light and power is 
come. 

At every turn in the story all the righteous are kept together, 
there being no distinction made between them as to dispensations, 
nor even as to the living and the dead; they remain one and are 
one with their Lord, and he is one with the Father. 

The same unity is maintained on the other side, and so a com- 
plete antagonism of the two conflicting powers is constantly and 
carefully preserved. 

Our early questions as to who is Abaddon, king of the 
locusts, angel of the abyss; and who is the dragon, and who the 
spotted beast and who the two horned beast, etc., all vanish when 
we have considered well, for we see them all as manifestations of 
one satanic power, varying with the change of subject under imme- 
diate consideration, and the titles and descriptions are correlated 
with the point of view taken so as to inform us and enable us to 
see and to know our enemy by his manifestations. 

This is very strikingly illustrated where the star fallen from 
heaven is the next moment called the angel of the pit of the 
abyss and the next moment called king of the locusts operating 
here on earth, and a little later is called the beast that came up 
out of the abyss, etc. These are but different phases of the one 
power that came up out of the western empire before the tem- 
poral and ecclesiastical power began to separate. A fallen star 
means apostle, angel of the abyss with a key (pretended authority 
badly used, etc.) and beast coming up from the abyss is the world 
power he assumes, etc. But all these are described as a succession 



248 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

from the old serpent the Dragon, called the Devil and Satan, 
whose capital is the great city Mystery, Babylon, Sodom and 
Egypt, etc. 

The Apocalypse follows the Old Testament prophecies in con- 
fining prediction entirely to those nations with which his people 
have to do. The old prophets never wandered off to speak of 
the affairs of nations entirely unrelated to his chosen people or 
to take any account of them. 

The story of this book follows the same course, never wander- 
ing off to notice ancient history, nor to notice in any manner what- 
ever any nation as such, or to notice what our world calls history, 
nor does it regard as of any concern or worthy of attention any 
event of earth, only as it is connected with the single theme, the 
conflict of the Little Lamb with the world powers, the powers of 
satan that deny the right of God to rule the world. 

It is remarkable how clearly the line of battle follows west- 
ward, with brief allusions to the bitter Mahomedan power on ac- 
count of its pretended religion of the one true God. 

The reduction of the seemingly great diversity of objects as 
we study the work is the sure token of our progress, till we reach 
the great and simple story of these past ages and look with calm 
confidence and great rejoicing into the future, where all enemies 
are trodden in the wine-press of God's wrath and satan bound 
and sealed within a tomb. Toward this as its outcome every- 
thing tends. 

The use of Christ's titles carefully and beautifully preserves 
it. He impersonates himself as he that hath the seven stars in 
his right hand, he that hath the two-edged sword coming out of 
his mouth, he that hath eyes like a flame of fire, etc. What is 
much controverted as the personal coming of Christ to the earth 
sustains the same subordination to the law of effacement in the 
Golden Cloth. He says, chapter 2, 16: "Repent therefore; or 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 249 

else I come to thee quickly and will make war against thee," 3, 3. 
"I will come to thee as a thief," etc. Christ has chosen to pre- 
sent his personality under names that suggest the functions or 
offices he will perform, and so effaces that rigid personality 
which we may fall into the habit of supposing includes his own 
single bodily presence. 

It is true the Seer says: "I saw him". "He laid his hand upon 
me and said, I am the first and the last, the living one," etc., a 
complete identification, and yet later he impersonates himself by 
the titles that describe his offices and works in the world, and 
again he descends and places one foot upon the sea and the other 
upon the earth (symbolic) and avows that time shall end, etc. 

Thus the personal idea as understood by some, eludes our 
grasp. It is effaced by the exchangeable use of both the personal 
and impersonal in his coming. It is like the death line. It 
does not appear on the Golden Cloth. 

There is no line of distinction drawn between his imperson- 
ated manifestations aiid his own proper personal appearing. He 
came in both ways to the exile. He saw him, heard him speak, 
and felt his hand upon him (in vision), and he also said to the 
sinful churches: "I will come to you and remove the candle-stick; 
I will make war against you," etc. This is far from saying that 
Christ will not come in a visible personal presentation, for it ex- 
pressly says, "every eye shall see Him, and them that pierced 
Him," etc. But what is to be noted here as elsewhere is that we 
have drawn distinctions and refinements upon these matters, not 
in the view of this book, but it is at the greatest pains to show the 
certainty of its outcome. In that one thought all others are so 
completely contained as to be indistinguishable, like the full orbed 
sun rising upon the starry night, not only effacing the difference 
in their comparative magnitudes, etc., but extinguishing them all 
by its superior glory. 



250 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

The teachings that preserve these distinctions must be found 
in the earlier writings of the New Testament. This mightiest 
work was written for the last and mightiest age, in which every 
Christian now expects to see all the doctrinal differences that 
have divided and distracted this middle state of Christendom, 
obliterated. The Golden Cloth obliterates them all. It sees the 
Little Lamb conquering, and not this mediaeval scholasticism and 
starlight groping and striving which conquer nothing. This is 
not only the omniscient book, looking toward the last age, but 
an omnipresent book giving to each succeeding age a sure light 
for its guide till the end. 

All lesser distinctions are submerged to raise to tne greatest 
possible eminence, and to give effect to the few fundamental 
facts, vital and essential to the world's redemption. Its voice is 
above all the hill-tops, and everywhere echoes the sentiment, 
"The World for Christ. ,, 

What a wonderful warp and woof of facts we find lying under 
the story of our hero, and his ages of warfare upon the powers of 
darkness. The story of his earthly career is here contained in a 
cryptogram that preserves in form or in substance all the great 
facts of his life in the world. 

The crucifixion is not only plainly spoken and referred to a 
time before the foundation of the world, but he is dramatized as 
a slain Lamb, who receives the book from the hand of Him that 
sitteth on the throne, etc. 

His resurrection from the dead is not only plainly declared in 
the words, "I was dead, and behold I am alive forever more," 
but by the resurrection of his two witnesses from the dead, the 
resurrection of his Church in the Reformation, and by the first 
general resurrection in the regeneration, when his ascendency on 
earth is inaugurated. 

His ascension to Heaven is preserved and manifested in the 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 251 

first series, that is, the seven letters. Between the third and 
fourth letter, where it rises from its place at the close of the items 
or parts that compose those letters, and takes the place which the 
Spirit held. / 

The descent of the Holy Spirit is manifested in the same way. 
It exchanges places with Christ. That is, Christ in his promise 
exchanges places with the Spirit's admonition at the close of the 
third letter, or between the third and fourth letters. This also is 
our first warning that the group of three in each is Christ's as 
against the group of four, which is the world's. 

We also found that the personal ministry of our Lord on 
earth is expressed by the seven seals, and his apostle's personal 
ministry in the same way expressed by the trumpets, which are 
the companion and supplement to the seals. 

The day of pentecost that preceded the apostolic commission 
is also clearly preserved in the cryptic by the preface to the trum- 
pets that represents prayers of the saints as ascending to "prepare 
them to sound." The great commission itself is expressed in 
both its aspects as a blessing to them that believe, and a curse or 
judgment to them that disbelieve. The trumpets represent the 
proclamation, and the bowls of wrath or the avengers the curse 
upon unbelief. They stand as positive and negative. He that be- 
lieveth not, shall be condemned. All the judgments of the book 
proceed upon this conception till we reach the Great White Throne. 

The birth of Christ also is preserved in the imagery drawn 
from it that represents the dragon about to devour the seed of the 
woman as soon as delivered. 

The first pentecost becomes the type upon which is patterned 
the advent of the Reformation, and also the opening of the re- 
generation. Thus we have three pentecosts in all, one of which we 
now look for with longing eyes, the greatest of all by far. In like 
manner we have three great satanic manifestations; the first the 



252 MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 

opening of his kingdom to the locust advent; second, the three 
unclean prostituting spirits like frogs going throughout the earth, 
and last his coming out of prison and gathering the people from 
the four corners of the earth to encompass the saints, and to re- 
ceive the destruction of God's fire from heaven. 

The great creation itself is everywhere preserved by the sep- 
tenary order so prominently observed. These five great series 
containing seven parts or divisions, each taken with their great 
supplements, may be called the original or major cryptogram. 

The leading facts of the life of Christ, his birth, death, resur- 
rection, ascension, the great commission, and the descent of the 
holy spirit, and the Old Testament facts may be called the second- 
ary or minor cryptogram, while the symbolic expressions used in 
conjunction with these to clearly foretell the foreview of the 
world, may be called the symbolic cryptogram. 

The septenary prevalence everywhere shows all this is the car- 
rying out of the original intent of creation, creation of six days' 
work and one of rest. The temptation and sin and fall of our 
first parents is preserved here by its carrying out of the promise 
made to the woman that her seed should bruise the serpent's head. 

The exodus from Egypt underlies the description of the 
Reformation pentecost as marching out of Egypt. 

And the end of the Reformation is represented as the return 
from Babylon, when the temple is rebuilt and the tabernacle 
folded away. 

As seven represents the procession and end of creation, so 
three indicates the source or origin of it as from Father, Son and 
Holy Spirit, and four the process and duration of world power. 

The number two indicates the two sides to God's covenant, 
the giving by God and the receiving of it by man, etc. 

The number ten expresses government and rule because God's 
nation, Israel, had ten laws. Twelve expresses chosen and ac- 



MYSTERY OF THE GOLDEN CLOTH. 253 

cepted, based on the twelve tribes of Israel. All these, except 
twelve and two, play some part in the great parody where world 
religions mock the true. 

All the vital facts of the Bible are laid for a base or pattern 
upon which is built this God-given, this amazing inscription of 
heaven's last revelation to man. It is the New Bible. It built 
all that was to come upon all that was passed. 

There lie those wondrous cryptograms, the warp and woof, 
and here superimposed are the records of actual history. It was 
at no time a sealed book, but needed an age clear enough to see 
and to understand. 

It is to be opened and to be shown in the sixth trumpet. It 
is so dramatized, and we are now in the times of the sixth trumpet. 
Its heavenly range is above all the petty controversies grown out 
of the dark ages. It presents us in primer, in bold and beautiful 
outline, the career of the Christ. Its understanding will bring a 
new and better day to Zion. It is the need of this age. Let it 
be heard in the prayer meetings, in the Endeavors, in the pulpits 
everywhere. Light has come out of darkness. Let our hope 
be filled with gladness. Behold, he "cometh quickly." 



COMPENDIUM. 

Revelation Chap. I. Title page of the hero, and salutation. • 3 

Chap. II-III. Letters to seven churches. ... 22 

Chap. IV. Foreview of the millennium. - - 28 

Chap. V, 1-8. Conveying the revelation to Little Lamb dram- 
atized, -------- 34 

9-14. Great oratorio ------ 

Chap. VI, 1-8. Four world seals opened, 46 

8-7. Two of the three heavenly seals opened. - - 48 

The martyr's triumphant;crucifixion and destruction of the world 
powers. - - - - - - 49 

Chap. VII, 1-17. Supplement to sixth seal. 1st. The great 
reformation as an exodus from dark ages, etc. The journey 
and the tabernacle, etc. ----- 50 

Chap. VIII, 1. Seventh seal. Sacred time dramatized, the Sab- 
bath observed, etc. - - - - - - 57 

2-6. Preface to trumpet series. First Pentecost and prepa- 
ration for sounding. - - - - - - 61 

7. First trumpet. - - - - • • 62 

8. Second trumpet. Rome goes down. - - - 65 
10. Third trumpet. Mahomed and the East. - - 67 

12. Fourth and last world trumpet. Apostasy complete, 
dark ages, etc. - - - - - - 70 

13. Preface to the heavenly trumpet. Three woes to the 
earth. - - - - - - - - 72 

Chap. IX, 1. Diabolical pentecost. The first. Satan opens his 

kingdom. His apostles and their commission, etc. - • * 74 

12. Second woe to earth - - - - - 86 

World powers loosed from vassalage to locust king, etc. 86 

Chap. X, 1. Return of the Lord. Revelation revealed in drama. 100 

The end of time by an oath, etc. - - - 100 

Great questions answered. - - . 1 1 1 

255 



5EVEN LETTERS 

EPH.6MR.PRfr.THY.5RD.PHL.LDC. 

I. ADDRESS 

SIGNATURE. 

3, APPROVAL 



MAJOR CRYPTOGRAM 



4. INSTRUCTION 

5.EXH0RTATIOM 

6. WARNING W W\ /P 
7 PROMISING P P/xW 



SEALS / 5 .6.l7 
1.2.3.4. * £ 
TRUMPETS^ 3 
PREF. 1.2.3. l/ | 



EVAM&EL5 

1.2.3. 4.S.6.] 

AVENGERS 
PREF. 1.2.3. 4.5 6.1 
SUPPLEMENTS 



MINOR CRYPTOGRAM. 

Birth of Christ, Herod's attempt upon His life, His personal ministry, Hi 
Spirit, Day of Pentecost, The Apostles, The great commission. 1 
Return from Babylon, Dearth in Israel, The Reformation, The Regenerate 



25 6 COMPENDIUM. 

Chap. XI, I- 19. The church revived and established. The 

Reformation: second view of, etc. - - - - 112 

2. The Bible lost and recovered, history of, etc. - 

15. Seventh trumpet. ----- I2 4 

Observes sacred time. - - - - 125 

Chap. XII. Fortunes of the lost Church and fall of pagan Rome. 127 
Chap. XIII, 1 -10. Diabolical succession, the spotted beast, 

politico-religions. ------ 137 

11. The earth beast or false prophet. - - 142 
18. The number of the beast. - - - . i$ 

Chap. XIV, 1. The Lamb on Mt. Zion. An oratorio with new 
chorus. - - - - - - - 158 

6. Third evangelization of the world or the regeneration. 
The seven evangels. - - - - - 161 

9. Third evangel warns against brute power and brute 
worship. -----.. 

14. The reaper angels harvest the grain. 
17. Gather the earth vine and tread in the wine-press of 
God, etc. ------- 

20. World powers crushed. - 

Chap. XV, 1. Preface to avenging angels. - - 169 

2-4. Oratorio. - - - - - 174 

5. Pentecost or preparation for the third evangelization or 
regeneration. -_---- 

7. The world powers converted and cooperate with the 
Church in the regeneration. - - - - - 

Chap. XVI, 1. First avenger's bowl upon the earth. - 182 

2. Second bowl upon the sea. - - - - 

3. The third bowl upon the east. - - - 182 

8. Fourth bowl upon the sun, etc. - - - 184 

10. Fifth bowl upon the throne of the beast. - 186 

12. Sixth bowl upon the great river. 
14. Second diabolical evangelization. 

17. Seventh bowl emptied into the air keeps sacred time. 
Unclean spirits. - - 188 

End of apocalyptic time and God's judgments finished. 
Chap. XVII, 1. Supplement. The great harlot and beast judged, 
etc. ------- 194 



COMPENDIUM. 257 

Chap. XVIII, 1. The great dirge of kings, etc. - - 203 

Chap. XIX, 1. Great oratorio. The last marriage of the Lamb. 207 

The great white pageant. - 209 
The great supper of God. - 

Chap. XX, 1. Satan bound and imprisoned. - - 216 
4. The first resurrection. - - 
7. Satan loosed the third and last. - 

11. Last judgment, white throne, all things made new. - 222 

Chap. XXI, 1. The new Jerusalem. - 

Come Quickly ... 227 

The enemy. ----_. 234 

The Promises. .---'- 236 

Time element. ------ 239 

The story. ----- 243 

Acknowledgments. --_.._ 258 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

I acknowledge a debt to Elder W. H. Martin, whose Voice of Seven 
Thunders waked in me a desire to understand the Revelation. Mr. 
Martin was able at least to "see men walk as trees." 

I confess to receiving valuable suggestions from Prof. Wm. Milligan, 
of Aberdeen, Scotland, whose lectures on Revelation are incisive. 

I am gratified to find in a work on Johanan Theology, by Prof. Geo. 
B. Stephens, Ph.D., D.D., of Yale, several well-chosen words concerning 
what was peculiar to the method of John, as follows: 

"The peculiarities of John's thought elude exact description. * * 
They are felt by all attentive readers, but they almost defy the effort to 
deduce from them the modes and laws of the writer's own thinking. * * 
I should place among the most prominent of John's peculiarities the ten- 
dency to group his thoughts around certain great central truths. The 
apostle's mind penetrates to the heart of things. * * * It is con- 
templative, mystical, emotional, but not in the sense of being vague. * * 
His writings are characterized by a species of dualism. * * * To his 
mind the spiritual life is the heavenly life already begun. * * * John's 
reasoning about judgment illustrates almost exclusively the idea of a 
process of judgment going on continuously in this world, and constituting 
the reverse side of the work of redemption. * * * His expressions 
illustrate a mode of thought which it is extremely interesting to follow 
out, and one which has fascinated many of the profoundest minds of 
Christendom. * * * All John's religious idea are contained in a few 
elementary principles which are never lost sight of." 



258 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: July 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 225 386 






